


Claimed and Reclaimed

by unifiedbuzzard



Category: Mad Max Series (Movies)
Genre: A/B/O, Alpha!Joe, Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Anal Sex, Angst, Biting, Blood and Gore, Bondage, Breeding, Fingerfucking, Forced Bonding, Forced Orgasm, Forced Pregnancy, Handcuffs, Healing, Knotting, M/M, Mating Cycles/In Heat, Mpreg, Murder, Muzzles, Nesting, Non-Consensual Oral Sex, Non-Traditional Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Omega!Max, Oral Knotting, Oral Sex, Porn, Porn With Plot, Punishment, Rape, Suicide Attempt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-21
Updated: 2018-11-27
Packaged: 2019-04-05 12:04:05
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 11
Words: 32,790
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14043897
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/unifiedbuzzard/pseuds/unifiedbuzzard
Summary: Max is captured and used for his omegan biology. When Joe forces a bond between them, Max has to live with the consequences, and he quickly gives up hope that he'll ever be able to reclaim his life.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hello and welcome to another episode of 'unifiedbuzzard likes to completely fuck up Max's life.' I'm a one-trick pony, but at least I know what I like.
> 
> I’m following suit of another author in this fandom and abandoning the trope of assbabies. It just doesn’t make sense to me. In this universe, male omegas have a vaginal opening behind the balls.

Max fights against the chains his captors have put him in. It hadn’t taken them long to figure out he’s an omega. Once they had stripped him to examine and bathe him, that was it. There was no covering it up anymore. And with what a rare breed omegas are these days, he can only imagine one outcome from this. He yanks harder on the chains.  
  
Max jumps as the door to his little room swings open, and he greets the sick excuse for a doctor with a low growl.  
  
“Congratulations,” the man says with a little laugh as pale soldiers move in behind him. “He wants you.”  
  
Max fights and snarls as they unchain him from the wall and pull him out of the room. He will not be reduced to breeding stock. He refuses.  
  
They bring him to a set of rooms and the smell of an alpha hits him like a wall. He struggles briefly to get away, but the betas holding him still overpower him, and they drag him farther in.  
  
They take him straight toward a man wearing a gruesome toothed mask, and the scent of alpha makes Max feel light-headed.  
  
The man grips Max’s muzzle and looks at him critically. “Has he carried before?”  
  
“Looks like he’s been bonded and had at least one litter before. Probably a pretty long time ago,” the man who had stripped and examined him answers.  
  
“And he can still birth?” His eyes drift down to Max’s shirtless chest, and Max jerks as he runs his fingers down it.  
  
“Time will tell, Joe.”  
  
Joe gives the Organic Mechanic a harsh look, and the doctor shrugs. “Wasteland’s hard on these poor omegas, especially when they’re on their own. But if he ain’t too beat up, he’ll go into heat, and then you’ll know.”  
  
The older man in front of Max grunts out a wordless response, then: “Chain him up in here. I want him surrounded by my scent.” He runs his fingers gently across Max’s cheek, then directs his soldiers to chain Max to the foot of his bed, on the floor. It’s as they start to drag him over there that he stops them.  
  
“He doesn’t bear my mark.”  
  
Max is still struggling, and the Warboys hold him hard.  
  
“Wasn’t sure if you wanted to keep him or not,” the Organic Mechanic says. “I’ll get the iron.”  
  
The Organic Mechanic turns and leaves, and after an impatient wave of Joe’s hand, the Warboys move Max over to the bed and chain the back of his muzzle to the footboard. He struggles against the chain until he has no choice but to admit there’s no getting out of this, and he sits against the footboard with a groan of defeat. He watches Joe and the Warboys warily.  
  
When the Organic Mechanic returns, he’s got a red hot branding iron in his hand, and a twisted smile on his face. Max is instantly pulling at his chain again, his eyes wide.  
  
The Organic Mechanic hands the brand off to Joe, and Joe looks down at Max like he’s a piece of meat.  
  
“Hold him.”  
  
Max fights against the hands that come to pin him in place, but the Warboys still outnumber him, and before long he’s being held face-down on the floor, his arms twisted painfully behind his back. One grasps his head and holds it still as Joe steps closer.  
  
The brand presses to the back of Max’s neck, and a scream bursts out of him as it sears into his flesh. He thrashes, but the hands holding him press down harder, and Max can only scream.  
  
When Joe pulls the brand away, all of Max’s fight is gone. His body quivers as the Warboys let up their hold on him, and he frees one hand from behind his back to press against the fresh burn. The skin is still hot, and it feels like the pain is sinking into his very bones. He whimpers against the floor below him. He refuses to be owned by this man, but even if he can get away, he knows he’ll always bear this mark now.  
  
For the next few days, Max lives like a dog, forced to curl up on a meager blanket at the foot of the alpha’s bed, unable to move more than a few feet, and being fed scraps that he has to squeeze through the bars of his muzzle. The burn on the back of his neck is a constant agony.  
  
By the time three days have passed, Max is, without a doubt, in heat. He can feel slick starting to leak out of his omegan cunt and run into his trousers, and he shifts uncomfortably, but slides his hand down his trousers and presses two fingers into his opening. He feels so hot and flushed, and he just needs something inside, needs to clamp down on a knot and orgasm so badly that he doesn’t know if he’ll be able to fight Joe when he finally comes for him. He works his fingers deep into himself and moans in pleasure, but as his muscles spasm and tighten down desperately around his fingers, it’s wholly unsatisfying. He needs a knot.  
  
When Joe enters his rooms that night and a wave of fresh alpha pheromones hits Max, he shudders and tries to hide his face, though he knows Joe is going to smell his heat. There’s no getting out of this now. His body wants to be filled, to be bred, and as much as he himself wants nothing to do with Joe, as much as he dreads the very idea of being raped by the man, he knows it’s going to happen.  
  
Joe laughs quietly behind his mask as he steps nearer. “My good little omega. I knew it wouldn’t take you long.” He crouches next to Max and Max shudders again, feeling his hole produce even more slick in the presence of the alpha. He fights his body’s need to throw himself at Joe, to present himself for breeding. His body wants it, but he does not, and he hates being in heat more than anything else, because it becomes so hard to fight his biology.  
  
Joe moans and inhales at Max’s neck. “Mm, I’m looking forward to this.” He seems to have a difficult time of pulling away as he stands up again. Max can tell he wants to fuck him here and now as badly as Max’s body is begging for the same. “But first, let’s get you to a more suitable place.”  
  
He fetches a couple of his trusted Imperators, both betas by the smell of them, and they take Max out of the room. His legs shake and he can barely walk. More slick leaks out of him as they move, and he groans in misery. He needs to be filled. He needs to be knotted. But at the same time, he can’t stand that Joe will be the one to do it.  
  
They take him to an area inside a massive glass dome, and the Imperators, practically dragging him at this point, follow Joe up to a room at the top of a curving set of stairs. Max can barely look at anything other than Joe, his body drawn to the alpha whose scent he’s been breathing for the last few days, but he struggles weakly as they lead him toward a bed. He doesn’t want this.  
  
“No. No!” He fights harder, his mind snapping to a brief, sudden clarity as the situation becomes more and more real and terrifying. He wrenches his arms out of the Imperators’ grips and turns to run, but they catch him quickly and drag him back as he kicks and fights furiously.  
  
“Come, my omega. You know you want this,” Joe purrs as they take Max over to the bed again. They throw him on his face onto the mattress, and each pulls an arm up toward the headboard, where they lock his wrists into handcuffs, then step back.  
  
Max growls and fights against the handcuffs, but they’re tight on his wrists, and the bed frame is sturdy.  
  
“That’ll be enough, you may leave now,” Joe says to his Imperators, and Max hears them turn and walk out.  
  
Joe steps up and kneels beside the bed, and Max turns to glare at him. Joe removes his mask and smiles fondly. “You may fight now, but your body needs me. You need my cock deep inside you, don’t you?”  
  
Max shudders at the thought and the shock of wanting it sends through his body, another wave of slick coming from his omegan opening. Joe strokes his hair, and Max has to force himself to jerk away instead of leaning into the touch.  
  
He buries his face in the bed as Joe steps away again and starts stripping, and shudders wrack his body in anticipation. He needs it. He hates it.  
  
Suddenly Joe is beside him again, and Max won’t look at him. He’s shaking in terror and rage. This is sick and wrong. Yet at the same time, his cunt aches for it, and he has to resist the urge to get on his knees and present himself.  
  
“Come now,” Joe says, his hands sliding under Max’s hips and working at the flap to his trousers.  
  
Max thrashes suddenly, growling in rage. “Don’t touch me!”  
  
Joe just laughs and yanks Max’s trousers down harshly. Max fights as he strips them off, and then he’s left naked and vulnerable, unable to defend himself, and he wants to scream, but refuses to show Joe how terrified he is.  
  
“Oh yes, you are so wet for me, my good little omega.” Joe’s hand slips between Max’s legs and rubs through the slick coating his opening and running down the inside of his thighs. Max moans at the touch, and hates that he does, but he manages to hold himself back from pressing toward Joe’s hand.  
  
“Don’t worry, I’ll give you exactly what you need.” Joe pulls Max’s legs apart and a thrill automatically goes through Max’s stomach at the feeling, but he stuffs it down. He’s sickened by how his body wants to be like this, wants it so badly.  
  
“I’ll fill you up, give you a knot and all the pleasure you want.” Joe pets Max’s back and climbs onto the bed between his legs.  
  
“No!” Max struggles again, only to end up with Joe’s weight pressing down on him, his large cock already hard and sliding between Max’s legs. Max shudders violently, but his body doesn’t want to fight it anymore. He curses it for betraying him.  
  
Joe rolls his hips and his cock rubs against Max’s opening, and Max can’t help the moan that escapes him.  
  
“Yeah, that’s it. You want this. Come on, my omega.” He smells Max’s neck, licks along it and nips at his skin, and it’s all Max can do to not tilt his head up and expose himself to it. With another roll of his hips, Joe pulls another moan out of Max, then lifts himself up. “Come on, present yourself to me like a good omega bitch.”  
  
Max refuses. He won’t do this. His pussy clenches needily, but he keeps his body still.  
  
Suddenly Joe grabs his hips and hauls him up onto his knees, and Max jerks away, but he has nowhere to go, and Joe moves in toward him again. He pulls Max’s thighs wider and with a growl Max jerks his hips out of Joe’s hands and presses himself back to the bed, trying to do what little he can to stop this. The need is getting so strong that it’s starting to fog his brain, to make him think that maybe getting fucked by this warlord will be worth it, worth the relief from this heat, but he won’t accept that. This is rape, and he stuffs his body’s biology down as much as he can. He wants nothing to do with this.  
  
He struggles with everything he has as Joe tries to bring him back up to his knees, and finally Joe lays himself back on top of Max, his weight bearing down and pinning Max in place.  
  
“Stop fighting me,” Joe growls, and he jerks his hips violently. Max feels his cock slide against his opening, and Joe jerks again, probing blindly until the head finally finds Max’s hole, and Joe thrusts in quickly.  
  
Max screams, but as Joe pushes in deeper, it drops off into a loud moan. Max hates his body for this, but this is exactly what it was needing. A big, thick cock to fill him up, to breed him, to give him pups. He shakes his head to clear it, and tries to struggle against Joe, though his body is weakening, and Joe’s weight still presses down on him. Joe thrusts again, and Max moans a second time.  
  
“There you go,” Joe encourages, shifting his body and pressing in slowly deeper and deeper, stretching Max open in a way his body needs more than anything. He goes in to the root, and Max’s muscles clench down around the slight bulge he can feel, which he knows will expand into a knot when Joe reaches his peak. Another moan escapes him, and all his muscles that had been tense and trying to fight go lax.  
  
Joe starts thrusting slowly, going balls-deep every time as if taunting Max with the bulge of his deflated knot, and pleasure sparks through Max’s body. His cunt clenches pleadingly again, and he shakes with need, even as his mind screams in rage and terror. He tries to will himself to fight Joe, and manages to jerk his body beneath him, but it gets him nowhere.  
  
“Just accept it, we both know this is what you need.” Joe picks up his speed, and Max moans again. He tightens his hands into fists around the poles of the headboard he is chained to, but he can barely get his body to fight it anymore. Not as Joe gives it exactly what it wanted. He growls at the knowledge that Joe is right, that his omegan biology is forcing him to need this. He jerks one more time beneath Joe, then goes slack with a muffled sob.  
  
“Yes, that’s my good omega. You want my cock. You want my seed.” He picks up his pace again, rolling his hips and making Max continue to moan. It feels so good, and he hates it.  
  
“There you go, come on,” Joe murmurs into his ear as he fucks him. “Take my cock. Take it deep.” He slams into Max harder, and Max cries out in pleasure.  
  
“Fucking bastard,” Max manages to grunt out, but it’s the extent of the defiance he has left. Joe just laughs and slams into him again.  
  
He works Max up until he’s shaking, his cock hard against the bed and his cunt still clenching now and then, begging for a knot to lock down on, the only thing that will let him orgasm and release the deep need that has taken over his body.  
  
The tension builds and builds in Max until he’s crying with need, yelling in pleasure, his knuckles white from his deathly tight grip on the bars in front of him as Joe violates him.  
  
“Yeah, you’re going to cum on my knot. You’re going to cum with my cock deep inside you.”  
  
Joe’s words disgust Max, though he knows it’s true. He can feel it coming, and knows he won’t be able to stop himself once Joe knots him. A scream of rage fades into a cry of pleasure as Joe presses in deep again.  
  
Joe’s voice joins Max’s in grunts and moans and cries of pleasure, and finally his knot grows, stretching Max wider with every thrust, making him see stars from the pleasure until it’s big enough for Max’s muscles to lock down on and Max cries out as he orgasms, waves of pleasure washing over him as he squeezes hard and unwillingly milks Joe’s knot for the cum he’s releasing inside of him.  
  
Joe bites down hard at the base of Max’s neck, stimulating the bonding nerves there, and Max screams out in rage and pain. He won’t let this man bond him. He’ll never be bonded to a rapist. But he’s barely able to try to fight it. The pleasure raking over him overtakes all else, his mind barely able to focus on anything but the ecstasy jolting through his body.  
  
It goes on and on, pulse after pulse of cum and pleasure rushing into him until he finally collapses in exhaustion. He feels a deep satisfaction in his body, like something was coiled tight and has now released, and he sighs in relief despite himself, his cunt still spasming in aftershocks of pleasure.  
  
The realization that he had just cum under this assault slowly sinks into his pleasure-addled brain, and he hides his face in shame. It makes him sick, and he hates what his biology has driven him to. He hates himself for being so weak against it, for letting it control him to the point that he would actually orgasm while being raped.  
  
Joe remains locked inside of him, and will for some time. As much as it disgusts Max now that his head is clearing, he knows as long as there is a knot inside of him, the need will stay away. He’ll only have relief for that long, and then the need will rise back up, and his body will be begging to be fucked again and again until his heat is over.  
  
They both fall into silence, only breathing heavily in exertion as they come down from their orgasms. Max wants to squirm at the uncomfortable feeling of the other man still pressed deep inside him, but he dares not move, for fear that even the slightest movement will bring the pleasure back.  
  
But Joe has other ideas for him. He’s been panting in exhaustion against the back of Max’s neck, his warm breath spreading over Max’s raw brand, but as his breathing slows, Max hears a chuckle and Joe reaches up to stroke the side of his head. “Such a good omega, taking my seed like it’s the only thing you need in life.”  
  
Max snarls and tries to struggle under Joe’s weight, but Joe just jerks his hips, pressing hard into Max before pulling back to the limited extent that he can, his knot tugging against Max’s muscles. He starts fucking him again with small little thrusts, forcing the pleasure to build back up in Max’s body. Every tug of the knot inside Max makes him shudder. Joe reaches down and pushes Max’s legs father apart so he can push in deeper, and Max moans in pleasure again.  
  
He hates this. He hates everything about this, but as Joe presses deep into him then pulls back against his muscles, he can feel the tightness and warmth building up inside him again.  
  
“That’s right, I’ve got you,” Joe says as Max finds enough clarity to whimper in misery. “I can make you cum as many times as I want.” Joe’s voice is sickly sweet in Max’s ear, and he presses in hard again, pulling a moan out of Max.  
  
He continues to fuck him, building Max up again until he’s hard and crying out in pleasure once more.  
  
“Come on, omega,” Joe continues babbling into his ear, “cum for me. Milk more seed out of my knot.” He tugs back so hard Max thinks he’s trying to break free, then slams into him, and Max screams as his vision blanks out and he cums again, his muscles squeezing down so hard that Joe cums too, and he feels more semen flood into him in pulses. This time he can barely even feel Joe’s teeth sink into the same spot as last time, the shocks of his orgasm rushing through him drowning out all else.  
  
Joe falls onto Max again as he finishes, and Max tries to breathe under his weight, his lungs heaving as the last waves of pleasure wash over him and his muscles milk a few more pulses of cum out of Joe’s knot. His head clears again, and he starts to sob against the bed.  
  
“Shh, shh,” Joe hushes behind him, stroking his hair. “This is what you wanted.”  
  
Max snarls suddenly and snaps over his shoulder at Joe. “I never wanted this!” His muscles tighten to fight again. “Get the fuck off of me, you sick bastard.”  
  
“Mm, no.” Joe laughs quietly. “Not when I’ve still got seed that belongs in you.”  
  
Max thrashes and Joe pets him again.  
  
“Just one more time, sweet omega.”  
  
Max shakes his head violently, but Joe bites down on his neck once again and starts thrusting shallowly, and Max cries out in frustration as the pleasure sparks through his body once more.  
  
One last time, Joe brings him to orgasm, more waves of cum pulsing into him from Joe’s knot, though not the flood Joe had forced into him the first time. Max can barely even move after his third orgasm, and he cries quietly as Joe strokes him, until the last spasms of his cunt milk the last traces of cum out of Joe’s knot, and it slowly deflates until it slips wetly out of him.  
  
“There you go,” Joe says softly as he finally lifts himself up and pulls all the way out. “That was good, wasn’t it?”  
  
Max’s muscles clench around nothing and he desperately holds back a sob. He knows it’ll only be a matter of time before his body is begging to be bred again. But now that it’s finally over, his heart rate finally starting to settle and his breath slowing, the sting and ache of the bite at the base of his neck reminds him that Joe tried to bond him, to make him loyal to him, to want nobody else but him. Max is glad it didn’t take. It takes more than one breeding and a few bites to bond an unwilling omega, but he does notice in the aftermath that he doesn’t feel quite as much animosity toward Joe as he had. He swallows back a lump in his throat, fearing that Joe has started something within him regardless, but hoping that it’s just his exhaustion getting the better of him.  
  
Max turns his face away from his rapist. He feels some of the cum leak slowly out of him, running with the slick down over his balls, and he shudders at the thought of how much must have gotten pumped into him. Joe retrieves something next to the bed, then a moment later presses something rounded and bulbous between Max’s legs and into his cunt. Max’s muscles clench down on it weakly, though it’s not a real knot, not nearly big enough to give him the pleasure and release he’ll be needing again all too soon. But it is enough to keep the cum inside him, and Max lets a broken sob escape him.  
  
“Don’t worry,” Joe says as he starts to put his clothes and armor back on. “I’ll be back for you. You won’t have to endure the rest of this heat alone.”  
  
Max whimpers as his muscles spasm around the plug inside him. He’d rather die than have Joe ‘help’ him through the rest of his heat. He doesn’t look at Joe as he finishes dressing and finally leaves, but his stomach churns. His womb is probably stuffed full of cum, and alpha cum almost never fails to impregnate an omega in heat. He doesn’t see any other result from this than him getting pregnant. He cries quietly into the mattress below him. Birthing children is the very last thing he wants to do, and he’s angry that he was never even given a pretense of choice in this.  
  
He’s angry, but he’s not surprised. Omegas have always been treated like dirt, especially after the world fell and what few protection laws there were went with it. Alphas and betas only ever see an omega at the mercy of his biology as _wanting_ to be fucked and bred up, regardless of what he actually says. They say omegas ask for it, beg for it. They can’t seem to understand the difference between what the body wants and what the mind wants. The body is all that matters to them. And that’s all he is to Joe. A body to bear him children.  
  
Max stifles his sobs as he hears someone cautiously approach from the doorway. He picks up his head and looks over his shoulder, blinking away tears and trying to see the person through the waves in his vision.  
  
“It’s true,” says the woman, sounding amazed. “You’re an omega.”  
  
Max growls and tenses his muscles as she approaches, and she stops. He doesn’t particularly want to be seen like this, laid out and fucked, dripping with slick and cum and sweat and tears, and with a plug stuffed in him to hold the cum inside.  
  
“Don’t gawk,” says an older woman, approaching from behind the first. “Help me get him cleaned up and more comfortable.”  
  
They both come to the side of the bed, and the younger one sets down a bowl of water and squeezes out a rag from it. She brings it near his face slowly, and he flinches away.  
  
“Don’t bother,” he grunts. “I’ll just be a mess again in an hour.” He lays his muzzled face into the bed in resignation. “Save the water.”  
  
“We have no lack of water here,” she replies, and Max flinches as she runs the rag carefully up his arm.  
  
“Don’t touch me!” He snaps, and the woman jumps back. He buries his face in the bed again.  
  
There’s a brief silence between them. “Will you let us change the bedding at least?” The older woman asks. “You can at least be a little more comfortable…”  
  
“Leave me alone,” Max growls. He doesn’t want to feel comfortable here. There’s nothing about this place that should be comfortable. Without a word, the two women turn and leave.


	2. Chapter 2

It’s only been a few hours, but Max can tell by the way the women’s voices outside have gone silent that it’s late at night by the time Joe comes back. Max is a needy mess once more, sweating and writhing, trying to get some stimulation to relieve the torturous desire.   
  
He had gotten up a couple hours ago, had inched himself closer and closer to the headboard, trying first to spread his legs wide enough to get a hand to his groin and stimulate himself, then had tried pressing his side against the headboard, but the handcuffs weren’t long enough to let him get a hand where he wanted it. Eventually he had resorted to folding a leg under him and using his heel to press against the plug inside him. He rocked his hips and ground his heel up into himself, and managed a weak excuse of an orgasm around the bulbous plug, but eventually curled up on his side on the bed, defeated by his inability to get true release from it.  
  
He looks over his shoulder as Joe enters, but quickly buries his face in the bed again.  
  
“Yes, you look ready for another round.” Joe runs his hand up Max’s body from his thigh to the side of his chest, and Max jerks away, but has nowhere to go. Joe grabs his ankle and yanks hard until Max is lying flat on his stomach again, and then he reaches down and finds the plug between his legs. He toys with it, twisting it back and forth and making Max moan quietly before he slowly slides it out. His fingers quickly replace it, and Max’s muscles clench down around them as Max whines reluctantly.  
  
“Still nice and wet,” Joe comments. “It’s been so long since I’ve had an omega, I forgot how nice it is to have something so ready for my cock.” He slides his fingers out and steps away to undress.  
  
Max is shaking when he comes back. He hates this heat, hates this need. He growls as Joe touches him again, though he knows there’s really nothing he can do about this. He can make it difficult for Joe, but he won’t be able to stop him.  
  
Joe climbs onto the bed between Max’s legs again and Max forces back the shudder he can feel trying to creep through him. Joe grabs a handful of Max’s ass cheek and Max jumps at the sudden, painful touch. He puts some weight on Max, pinning him down as two fingers of his other hand slide into Max’s cunt. He presses them in hard, and Max bites his lip to stifle a moan, but as Joe starts to finger fuck him, Max can’t hold it back.   
  
He writhes under Joe’s attention, trying to escape the violation and the pleasure he’s starting to feel build up in him, but Joe holds him down hard, and starts thrusting his fingers into Max a little harder, a little deeper. Max cries out, half pleasure, half frustration. The stimulation is just what his body had been itching for over the last few hours. He clenches down around Joe’s fingers and moans again as Joe continues.  
  
Joe stimulates Max until they’re both hard and Max is finding it more and more difficult to fight his body’s desire to get up and present himself for a proper fucking. When he starts crying out in pleasure, so near an orgasm but unable to do it without a knot inside him, Joe laughs above him.  
  
“You know you need my cock to cum,” he says as shudders wrack Max’s body and he grips the bars of the headboard hard. “But I’m not going to give it to you.”  
  
Max tries to hold back a whimper and fails.  
  
“Not until you present yourself to me,” Joe continues. He releases his bruising grip on Max’s ass and slides his hand around to Max’s hip and urges him up gently.  
  
Max almost does. His muscles start to move to lift himself up, but he shakes his head with gritted teeth and forces himself back down. “I’d rather die,” he growls at Joe.  
  
Joe sighs. “I guess you’ll need more work first.” He lays himself out atop Max again, and reaches down to guide his cock to Max’s cunt. He slowly slides himself inside. Max bites off a moan, but his body thrills at the feeling of being filled again. It needs nothing more than this, and he shudders.  
  
Joe rocks his hips slowly, pulling a moan out of Max with each one. The feeling grows quickly in Max, after having already been stimulated nearly to the point of orgasm, but he still can’t until Joe reaches his peak and knots him.  
  
Max’s body shakes and he jerks beneath Joe as Joe uses him, his voice rising in whimpers and moans and cries as it all becomes too much. Being filled feels more amazing than Max would ever admit to, but it’s not quite enough. His core is so tight with need that it almost hurts. His cock is hard, and as Joe fucks into his cunt, all he can think about is how much he needs to cum. His moans grow unrestrained.  
  
“Yes, that’s my good omega,” Joe says breathlessly behind him, his thrusts quickening and sending a hard jolt of pleasure through Max. “You’ll serve your purpose well, won’t you?” His breath is hot and moist against Max’s shoulder.  
  
Max claws at the bed, his fingers tightening around fistfuls of the sheet. Joe continues to talk to him, but his voice gets breathier.  
  
“Don’t you worry, I’m going to take good care of you while you carry my children.” He nips at Max’s neck and starts to moan. “You’ll have everything you could want.”  
  
If Max weren’t so taken by pleasure, he’d defiantly ask if that would include freedom, but Joe thrusts yet harder, and he starts to feel his knot swell, and a part of him that he has come to deeply hate thrills at the feeling.  
  
Max’s muscles preemptively grip at the knot, and the second it gets large enough, they tighten down and lock Joe inside him. He cries out as the pleasure finally washes over him, waves and waves rolling through his body as Joe’s cock pulses and shoots cum into him.  
  
Joe bites down on the other side of Max’s neck this time, stimulating the bonding nerves he had neglected last time, and Max tries to jerk away, to tear his neck away from Joe’s teeth, but can’t get his body to do what he wants it to. The heavy scent of Joe all around him is starting to become associated with the pleasure rocketing through his body, his bonding nerves trying to convince him to accept Joe as his alpha.  
  
He won’t do it. He won’t.  
  
But he doesn’t know if his biology is going to give him a choice.  
  
The rocking of Joe’s hips slows as he finishes out his orgasm, but Max’s carries on a moment longer, his body practically rejoicing at being pumped full of cum, rejoicing at the feeling of being properly bred. When it finally ends, he collapses with a broken sob. Joe clenches his teeth harder onto Max’s neck for a moment before he releases him and pants heavily against the wound.  
  
Max hates taking pleasure from being raped, but he also hates the times he has a clear head and can do nothing but lie beneath Joe with the feeling of his cock locked inside him. It’s big and thick and he can feel it throbbing within him, the sensations making him nauseous. It’s only a few minutes before Joe starts rocking his hips once more, and Max moans as the pleasure starts to spark through his body again.  
  
Joe licks at the bite wound he had left at the base of Max’s neck, and Max tilts his head to submissively expose himself to it before he can stop himself. He growls at himself when he realizes what he has done, but it’s too late to take it back. Joe laughs quietly and bites down on Max’s bonding nerves again as he drives his cock into him harder. Max cries out and grips the bed hard again until Joe brings them both to their peaks.  
  
Max’s whole body shakes after his muscles are done milking more cum out of Joe’s knot. Between what Joe had stuffed into him last time, and what he’s adding now, Max is sure he can feel it building up inside him. It would probably be leaking out of him around Joe’s cock if his muscles weren’t locked down on the other man so hard. There’s no way it’s not in his womb, impregnating him with the pups Joe wants so badly. He wants this heat to end, but not this way. Not because he’s been impregnated.  
  
He breaks down into sobs again, and Joe hushes him quietly. He continues to toy with the bundles of nerves on both sides of Max’s neck, but doesn’t force another orgasm out of him. Eventually his knot deflates, and Max’s sobs slowly subside as it slips from him. As Joe pulls out, Max can feel a stream of cum flow out of him, and he shudders. Joe’s hand goes to Max’s cunt, and Max wants to close his legs, but Joe’s legs are still between them, holding them open. His fingers run through the slick and cum around his entrance, and he pushes a bit back into him before he reaches for the plug and slides it into Max again. Max shifts uncomfortably as it settles into him.  
  
“That seed is my gift to you,” Joe murmurs, pleased with himself and sated by sex. “Don’t lose too much of it.”  
  
Some fucking gift. Max wants to snarl at him, but his body’s exhausted, and he can’t manage to bring himself to fight back.  
  
Joe moves from between Max’s legs, and Max quickly closes them. But instead of getting up, Joe simply pushes Max aside and flops onto the bed beside him. He strokes Max’s skin as he settles down. Max presses his muzzle into the bed, ashamed at what has become of him.  
  
Joe sleeps there, right beside Max, and the smell of his alpha pheromones swirls around Max. Despite his discomfort at having his rapist right beside him, Max is exhausted, and after a while, while the brief relief from the need to be fucked lasts, he finally falls asleep.  
  
His rest is fitful, but he doesn’t fully wake until morning, and when he does, it’s to a burning need yet again. He groans and twists his body, tightening his thighs together and trying to press the plug farther into him for a bit of stimulation.  
  
His movements wake Joe, who laughs quietly to find Max panting needily, his face flushed and his body wanting. Joe gets up and pulls one of Max’s legs open and moves between them. Max looks over his shoulder fearfully as Joe kneels below him and starts stroking his cock, his eyes sweeping over Max’s body.  
  
Max wants him.  
  
The thought shocks him, and he swallows down the fear that Joe’s bonding attempts are working.  
  
He fights against the feelings, but he needs to be knotted again, needs relief from the deep itch within him, and where else is he going to get it?  
  
Max’s eyes drift down to Joe’s cock as it starts to harden and rise, but he quickly clenches his eyes shut and turns his head away. He needs so badly to be bred and filled again, but what little part of his reasonable mind that’s able to get through the fog in his head rebels against the idea. It still sickens him.  
  
He twitches as two strong hands grab his hips suddenly and haul him up onto his knees. He jerks his body and finds his head pressed up against the headboard as Joe moves in closer, and as much as he wants to fight it, he can’t get his body to obey him. It wants exactly what Joe is about to give it, and a frustrated sound breaks down into a sob as Max tries again and fails to get his body to fight against this.  
  
He jerks again as Joe yanks his legs open wider, and then the plug is tugged out of him and there’s the familiar press of Joe’s cock against him. Max quivers as the anticipation gets the best of him, and a moment later, the man is quickly pressing in with a moan, and Max goes weak at the sensation of being filled again.  
  
Max is mortified at the indulgent moan that slips out of him, and he bites down on his lip until he tastes blood. This is not what he wants, and he won’t let the man behind him come to believe that it is.  
  
Joe starts moving his hips, thrusting in and out of Max, and another moan escapes him.  
  
“You’re finally learning,” Joe laughs as his hips snap forward and Max sees stars. “There’s no sense fighting it anymore. Submitting to me is in your nature.”  
  
Max wants to sob, but he’s afraid the next sound out of him will be another moan instead, so he forces himself to be silent as Joe rapes him, his hands sliding up over Max’s shoulders to grip them and use them for control as he fucks.  
  
Joe toys with Max’s bonding nerves again, and as he presses a finger into each sensitive bite wound, Max can feel the effect it has on him, his mind reeling at bursts of desire to keep Joe deep inside him, to be filled up. He shakes his head, trying to shake it off. He doesn’t want this.  
  
But he can’t get himself to fight it anymore.  
  
He stays up on his knees and elbows and takes it as Joe fucks him, as Joe brings him to orgasm and cums inside him, pressing hard into his bonding nerves at the same time. Max cries quietly when he finishes, and has no choice but to stay presented with Joe’s cock still inside him until Joe’s breath slows and he starts fucking again, taking full advantage of the time before his knot deflates.  
  
Joe manages to pull four orgasms out of Max this time, and Max doesn’t even have the energy to cry anymore when Joe finally slides out of him, reinserts the plug and lets him collapse on the bed. He feels numb and hollow and overused. He also feels incredibly full. A large dollop of cum had escaped him as Joe pulled out, but the rest is plugged inside, and he hates to imagine how much there is.  
  
“I wouldn’t think your heat should last much longer,” Joe comments, and Max closes his eyes in resignation. “I must have impregnated you by now. Your body just has to realize that.” He pets Max then steps away and starts dressing. “But don’t worry. I’ll check in on you when I can, and give you more if you need it.”  
  
Max doesn’t want any more. While his head is still clear, he prays that he never has to be touched by this man again, but he knows the only way that’ll happen is if Joe gets exactly what he wants.  
  
Joe finishes dressing and finally leaves, and Max, completely exhausted, quickly falls asleep.  
  
When he wakes up a short time later, he wakes in terror, suddenly aware of a close proximity and a touch to his arm. He makes a startled grunt and tries to swing his fists at his assailant, but the handcuffs simply clang against the bars they’re locked onto and his arms remain restrained. He looks at the other person in the room with wide eyes. It’s the red-haired woman again, the one who had tried to help clean him up yesterday.  
  
He knows she’s not a threat, and his heart rate starts to slow again. Now that he’s awake, though, he’s painfully aware of the need again. He crumples his eyes shut and groans. He doesn’t want her to be here. Not when he’s feeling like this.  
  
“You have to be hungry,” she says. She’s got a plate in her hands, and she lifts it up for him to see.   
  
Max eyes it. He is hungry, and the realization is a welcome distraction from the burning need to be fucked. He nods at her.  
  
“Here,” she says, setting the plate down and breaking a piece off of whatever the flat piece of food is and bringing it toward his muzzle.  
  
Max grunts. “I can do it.” He reaches toward the plate with his nearest chained hand. He wants the food, but he still doesn’t want her to be here. Not when he’s naked and chained and still needy.  
  
Putting the piece down, she moves the plate over to where he can reach it, and he moves up on the bed to be able to reach his mouth. He squeezes the first piece of the food through the bars of his muzzle, and is surprised to find it is somewhat sweet with the flavor of fruit. It’s some sort of dense cake. It tastes heavy with some sort of protein, but isn’t an unpleasant flavor.  
  
He stops after his third desperate bite and fixes her with a hard stare. She’s still here. She looks a little uncomfortable at his look, and quickly gets up to leave. “Just yell if you need anything,” she says almost sadly as she leaves.  
  
Max finishes his food quickly, and then finds himself rocking his hips, trying to get some stimulation from the plug inside him, though he knows it’ll never be enough.  
  
He eventually gets himself to fall asleep again. At least when he’s unconscious, he’s unaware of the burning itch, the need to be bred, and he’s still exhausted. He’s been fucked three times in the the span of probably twelve hours, and had more orgasms than he cares to remember. His muscles, held tight almost every waking moment since he got here, relax as he falls into the realm of sleep.


	3. Chapter 3

When he awakes again some hours later, finally feeling rested, he lays there for a few minutes before he notices: there’s no need. He feels calm and like himself again. There’s no desire to be fucked, no burning need to have something inside of him, to be knotted and filled. He lets out a quiet keen at the knowledge. While it’s a relief to be rid of the feeling, he knows the only reason a heat would be so short-lived is because he is now pregnant. It was inevitable that that much seed pumped into him would impregnate him, but he had hoped that maybe after years in the wasteland, he might have been infertile.   
  
When Joe comes back later that afternoon, he’s barely stepped into the room before he’s rumbling a quiet laugh. He can tell Max’s heat is over, and Max buries his face in the bed. He probably won’t be fucked anymore, but he doesn’t really know if this is any better. He doesn’t want to carry and birth children for this rapist.  
  
Joe leans over him and pets the back of his head. Max jerks his head away with a growl.   
  
“I knew it wouldn’t be long. Ah, omegas are so easy.” He’s silent for a moment, then: “But to tell the truth I was hoping for another round…”  
  
Max looks up at him fearfully, and Joe moves down his body and reaches between his legs. “If I’m lucky, you might still be wet enough.”  
  
Max clamps his legs together. He won’t let himself be raped again. But Joe tugs one leg open and puts a knee on it, bringing his other up onto the bed to block Max’s other leg as he tries to close them again. Joe tugs the plug out of Max and stuffs two fingers inside him. He laughs quietly again. “Still nice and wet.”  
  
Max fights as well as he can, but when Joe flattens his weight over Max’s body again, he’s got nowhere to go. He jerks and struggles, but Joe’s armor-clad body is crushing him. Joe reaches down and frees his cock from his trousers, and Max yells in rage. “You got what you wanted! Get off me!”  
  
“But I want more, and you’re such a good fuck,” Joe purrs, his hand still down between their bodies, now stroking his own cock.  
  
Max struggles again and pulls hard against the chains locking his wrists to the bed. Joe can’t make this situation any worse: he’s already pregnant, but needing to be fucked was bad enough, he doesn’t want to add rape while both his mind and body are unwilling to the list of things he’ll probably never be able to wash out of his mind.  
  
He shudders as he feels Joe’s cock harden and rise between his legs. He doesn’t shudder with need this time, but with pure disgust.  
  
Joe probes with his cockhead until he finds Max’s entrance, and then he pushes slowly in, sliding through the wetness and stretching Max wide around his thick cock. Max cries out and grips the bars above his head.   
  
Joe’s initially slow thrusts gradually pick up speed until his hips are slapping against Max’s ass, his cock pounding violently into his vagina. It still feels good, but Max is now able to push it down and ignore the pleasure. If Joe can’t bring him to orgasm, it’ll be harder for Joe to cum without Max’s muscles clamped around him, and if Joe doesn’t get what he wants, maybe Max won’t have to endure this ever again.  
  
He bites his lip, pushing down the pleasure and focusing on how much he hates Joe as Joe uses his body for his pleasure. He keeps the muscles around Joe’s cock still. He’s still an omega, and his body still wants to respond to an alpha, but he’s in control now and he won’t let it.  
  
For minutes on end Joe thrusts into him again and again, and Max thinks maybe he won’t ever cum, and hopes it won’t backfire and lead Joe to just fuck him to exhaustion. He hopes he’ll give up soon, but Max can’t help but cry out as he feels Joe’s knot start to expand within him, pushing a shock of pleasure through his body.   
  
He groans and bites his lip harder, forcing his body not to respond. Joe leans down and bites the cluster of bonding nerves at the base of Max’s neck, and Max’s mind suddenly topples into oblivion.  
  
His pupils blow wide and he clamps his eyes shut as his muscles tighten down around Joe and he stifles a cry. He tries to keep himself silent as he orgasms, tries to keep his head above the waves of pleasure washing over him, but a strangled moan escapes him, and Joe moans with him.  
  
Joe changes the angle of his hips as he continues to pound into Max and Max cries out again. Max’s body acts of its own accord, his hips tilting back and his muscles squeezing Joe in pulses, milking a stream of cum out of him. Max’s body shakes as the pleasure rushes through him, as the cum fills him up, as Joe pounds in to the root and makes Max see stars.  
  
When Joe finally falls still, Max falls silent. He doesn’t even cry, despite what Joe had just forced upon him. He feels numb.  
  
Joe laughs quietly. “Even when you’re not in heat, you still want me. You are mine, Omega.”  
  
Max burrows his face between the bed and his arm. He’s ashamed that Joe has control over him even now. He has nothing to say, no way to fight back.  
  
Joe shifts his hips and presses into Max again, and Max turns the beginning of a moan into a growl. Joe moves his head to the other side of Max’s neck and Max twitches away as his lips meet the bruised and torn flesh over his bonding nerves. He wishes he could cut them out of his body, hates them for betraying him like this.  
  
He screams as Joe’s teeth sink into the spot once again as he thrusts his hips forward, and pleasure sparks through Max’s body right from the start. His muscles flutter around Joe’s cock, urging him onward as Joe fucks him hard until they both cum again.  
  
By the time Joe is finally done with Max and slides out of him, Max lies motionless on the bed, in shock over what Joe had managed to force his body to do when he thought he had been in control of it. Joe gets up, tucks himself away, and regards Max for a long moment. Sweat glistens on Max’s body and cum runs sluggishly from between his legs. Finally Joe brings out a key and starts unlocking the handcuffs on Max’s wrists. Max snaps back to reality and pulls his arms away quickly as they’re freed, as if Joe might grab them again and chain him up some other way. Before he can move, though, Joe pins him by the back of his neck. Max struggles weakly, but Joe simply unlocks the muzzle from his face. Max tears it off as soon as Joe lets go of him.  
  
He gets up quickly and faces Joe from across the bed with hatred in his gaze. He wants to hurt him, knows he probably could do some damage now that Joe no longer has an unfair advantage over him, but his muscles tighten and quiver and he can’t bring himself to try it. There’s no denying it: Joe had succeeded in starting to establish himself as Max’s alpha. As much as Max hates him and is unwilling, his body is partially bound, and he can’t change that. It wouldn’t take much more for Joe to finish the job, but now that he’s unchained and not in heat, Max will give him hell before he’ll let Joe try to fuck him again.  
  
He can’t bring himself to attack Joe, so he snatches his trousers off the floor instead and quickly starts to put them on. Joe chuckles as he watches Max scramble back into his clothing.  
  
When he’s done, Max turns his full attention back on Joe and stands ready for a fight, even if he’s unable to start one.   
  
Joe simply turns his back and walks out of the room. “Make yourself at home. You’re going to be here a while.”  
  
Max stands stock still until Joe is long gone, and then he cautiously leaves the room, blinking in the bright light around him. He grimaces as he moves. Semen has been dribbling out of him since Joe pulled out, and is running into his trousers and down his thighs. He descends the stairs slowly, looking out the windows of the dome and far below him. He didn’t realize he was so high up now. No easy escape.  
  
When he reaches the bottom he notices five women sitting around the area, some reading, some talking quietly, one drawing, all now looking up to stare at him. He stops and his eyes dart from one to another, his stomach churning with discomfort. He knew there were other people here, but if they’ve been here the entire time, there’s no way they didn’t hear what was happening to him up there.  
  
The red haired one gets up and approaches him carefully. He notices now that she’s wearing a chastity belt. “This is the vault,” she says softly. Max looks around at all the things piled around the walls.   
  
“Um,” she continues, “we have food, if you want. Or you can wash.” She motions to a pool in the center of the room, her voice quiets considerably, and she says her next words gently. “I know it’s not pleasant… afterward…”  
  
Max stares at the little pool for a moment, then pushes past the woman without a word and splashes quickly into it, not even getting his trousers off until he’s already sitting on the bottom and half submerged in the water. He peels off the leather and leaves it floating beside him as he starts scrubbing frantically at his body. He doesn’t care that the others are probably staring at him, doesn’t care that he’s naked again; he’s already been seen at his worst, what’s a little nudity now? He just wants to wash away Joe’s touch. He scrubs at his skin everywhere Joe touched him, scrubs at the patches of dried saliva and blood at the base of his neck, reaches between his legs and scoops out as much cum and slick as he can.  
  
He’s dismayed to find he feels no cleaner when he’s done, that the lingering feeling of Joe’s touch is still on his skin. The water is foggy with sweat and semen as he finally grabs his trousers and climbs out of the pool. He wiggles back into his clothing quickly despite it being sopping wet, and he glances uncomfortably around at the women in the room. They’ve all turned away, not quite doing what they were before with full attention, but trying not to look at him.  
  
He clears his throat and speaks, trying to distract himself from the thought that all these women must have heard him moaning and crying out in pleasure as Joe raped him. They must think he actually enjoyed it, and he wonders what they think of him for it. “What is this place?”  
  
“It’s where he keeps his ‘treasures,’” a thin woman with long, stark white hair says with obvious disgust in her voice as she turns around cautiously, making sure he’s dressed. “Filtered air, filtered water. A veritable paradise.” Her voice still drips with disdain. “Don’t you think?”  
  
Max looks down. It’s far from that, especially if he’s trapped here. The other woman’s choice of the word ‘vault’ didn’t make it sound like a place he’d be allowed to leave. He shivers a bit. “I think it’s hell.”  
  
The woman laughs cheerlessly. “You’re not wrong.”  
  
“Do you… want food?” A young black haired one approaches holding a dish, and Max spins toward her, startled. She’s trying to look at his face, but he can’t help but notice her eyes keep drifting down to the base of his neck. The wounds from Joe’s bonding. He reaches up and covers one uncomfortably. He can tell she wants to ask, but she doesn’t.   
  
He takes the plate from her and retreats to the edge of the room to eat.


	4. Chapter 4

He keeps himself separate from the others. He’s noticed more than one eyeing his bonding wounds, and he wishes he were given a shirt so he could try to cover them up. They must not trust him. If they think he’s been bonded to Joe, if they think he’s been made loyal to the man, he can’t blame them.  
  
He slinks away and tries to hide when he hears the vault door open and Joe comes in every day. Sometimes he wants sex from one of the others. Sometimes he just wants to spend time with his ‘wives’ and be entertained by them. Max doesn’t want to see the man, but he goes seeking Max out after a few days and finds him crouched in the corner of the room where the women sleep.  
  
“Come, stop being a recluse,” Joe tells him, grabbing his arm and pulling him up. Max growls and resists, yanking his arm away, but the scent of Joe surrounding him makes his head feel foggy. Joe grabs his arm again and forces him out toward the main room where the others are. Max fights harder, strangely weak against Joe, but with a snarl manages to twist his arm out of Joe’s grip again.  
  
Joe turns and glares at him. “Come out here,” he orders.  
  
Max doesn’t respond, just stands ready to spring away, his eyes filled with hate.  
  
Joe reaches for his arm again, and Max moves quickly out of the way.  
  
“I am your alpha, and you will listen to me,” Joe growls, clearly annoyed.  
  
“I don’t belong to you,” Max responds in a low voice.  
  
Joe studies him for a moment, then turns and walks away. “We’ll see about that.”  
  
Max crouches in the corner again, Joe’s words making him nervous, and he listens to the sounds outside the room. When Joe comes back in, he’s got handcuffs in his hand, and a shiver of terror runs down Max’s spine.  
  
Max tries to move out of the way, but Joe corners him, then pins him, pushing him down to the ground as Max struggles madly. He’s got him down on his back, a knee on his chest, before he finally manages to catch one arm and put the handcuff around his wrist, then holding tightly to that one, catches the other and does the same.  
  
Finally he lets his weight off Max and yanks him to his feet. With Joe holding tightly to the other ends of the handcuffs, Max can’t manage to pull himself free. He still struggles, though. He won’t make this easy.  
  
Joe brings him out amongst the others. Max sees shock and fear on their faces in brief glimpses as he fights to free himself from Joe. Joe kicks the bench away from the piano and quickly forces Max down, bending him over on his stomach across the bench, then straddles his back.  
  
Max fights as Joe locks one handcuff around the leg of the bench, and manages to get his other hand free, but his body still won’t let him strike out against Joe, and it’s only a moment before Joe catches his other hand again and locks it in place as well.  
  
The bench isn’t quite low enough for Max’s knees to reach the ground, and he struggles against his restraints, his mind racing in terror.  
  
“Lesson time,” Joe says gruffly, getting off of Max. “If you won’t obey me, you will get punished.” He grabs the waistband at the back of Max’s trousers and forcibly lifts him off the bench, moves him aside, then sits down before he moves Max back and onto his lap. “None of you go anywhere,” he says to his other wives, looking pointedly at them. “Let this be a lesson to all of you.”  
  
He reaches under Max and opens his trousers, then yanks them down past his ass. Max struggles harder, his feet trying to get traction on the ground below him, but Joe holds him firmly on his lap.  
  
It’s a moment before Joe’s hand comes down hard on his ass with a loud smack, and Max jumps. It lands again, on the other cheek this time, hitting sharply, and Max closes his eyes and braces himself for the next.  
  
Another smack, higher on his ass this time, leaving his skin stinging. Max bites his lip to hold back whimpers as the alpha spanks him again and again. He still tries to struggle, but Joe’s other hand is strong on his body, and holds him with a bruising grip. A voice in the back of his head tells him he does deserve this for disobeying his alpha, and he hates that most of all.  
  
Over and over, Joe spanks him. Max stays quiet at first, but the pain builds with each hit that lands on flesh already smacked, and whimpers rise in his throat, then turn into cries as Joe’s strikes grow somehow harder.  
  
His ass is red and burning in pain all over by the time Joe finally stops. His hand slides against Max’s ass softly now, and he caresses the abused flesh.  
  
He’s got a tight grip on the side of Max’s hip as his fingers slide down the cleft of Max’s ass, between his legs, and work themselves into his cunt. Max bites his lip to stay quiet. He had expected this part, but being spanked in front of the others was bad enough, he doesn’t know if he can stand the humiliation of being raped in front of them. He tries not to think of all their eyes on him as Joe violates him.  
  
He struggles again, trying to escape, but Joe holds him down hard and shoves his fingers deep into Max’s cunt, and Max stifles a cry of pain.  
  
“So dry,” Joe mutters, working his fingers out and slowly back in. “We’ll have to fix that before you can take my cock.” He thrusts slowly, pushing in deep and rubbing Max’s walls firmly. Max shudders, squeezes his eyes shut and holds back whimpers.  
  
Max’s position as Joe slowly finger fucks him is awkward and uncomfortable with his hips up over Joe’s lap, his collarbone pressed into the edge of the bench, and his head hanging over the end. He’s gripping the legs he’s chained to with fists as he tries to keep himself quiet.  
  
Beneath him, he feels Joe’s cock harden and rise, poking at his hip, and Max feels nauseous. Joe’s fingers slide in and out slowly, almost gently, though the rub of flesh against dry flesh hurts and brings tears to his eyes. Joe presses in deep and twists his wrist to sweep his fingers around Max’s inner walls, then starts thrusting his fingers in and out in a steady rhythm.  
  
The smell of Joe’s arousal around him is almost intoxicating, and Max’s body finally responds.  
  
Max wants to yell in rage as he feels his cunt start to produce slick, and Joe’s fingers start sliding within him more easily, the touch becoming less painful. Max holds back a moan as Joe presses in deep, a laugh rolling out of the man.  
  
“There you go, that’s it.” He pulls most of the way out and presses in hard again, and Max squirms. “Almost ready for me.” He shifts his hips below Max, his hard cock prodding at Max’s pelvis again.  
  
When Joe is satisfied, he moves himself out from under Max and lays Max back across the bench. Max tries to get his feet under him, but Joe quickly puts a hand on the back of his hip and shoves him down hard.  
  
Max looks fearfully over his shoulder as Joe frees his cock from his trousers and lowers himself down behind him. As Max turns forward again, not wanting to watch as he’s about to be raped once more, he catches the horrified looks of the women forced to stay and watch. Cheedo has her face hidden behind Dag’s shoulder. Angharad is glaring hard at Joe.  
  
Joe thrusts into him suddenly, and Max cries out. He goes in to the root and grinds his hips against Max’s burning ass, one hand grabbing a handful of the beaten flesh, and Max cries out a second time in pain. He pulls back slowly, then slams in again, forcing the bench forward a few inches, then he sets up a slapping rhythm, fucking Max eagerly. Max tightens his muscles, clenches his eyes, and tries not to react, but as Joe fucks him, he can feel his vagina getting wetter, and he moans.  
  
Joe’s cock is so big Max thinks it must reach almost to his womb when Joe thrusts in deep. He’s sickened at having the organ jabbing repeatedly inside him, and the minutes as he’s raped drag on painfully. He grips the legs of the bench hard. He hopes again Joe won’t make him orgasm in front of the others, though he knows in the back of his mind that that’s not how this is going to go. The pain of each slap of Joe’s hips against his abused ass holds him back from feeling the unwanted pleasure, at least.  
  
Joe’s pace suddenly slows, and he rolls his hips as he thrusts in, pressing into a spot that makes Max moan again. His face burns with shame. Joe hits the spot again, bringing another moan out of Max, and then his knot starts to inflate, and he leans over Max and tucks his face into the crook of his neck. Max squirms and tries to escape, knowing exactly what is going to happen, but Joe forces him back into place and bites down hard on his bonding nerves, and Max cries out, his body reacting almost like it’s instinct. His muscles clench down around Joe as Joe thrusts in, and lock down around his knot. Max’s body shakes and he screams through his orgasm as Joe moans against his neck. His hips continue to work against Max’s ass as he pumps him full of cum once more and the horrid pleasure rolls through Max’s body.  
  
He continues thrusting hard until Max’s orgasm fades and his cries and moans quiet. Joe releases his hold of Max’s neck and pushes himself upright again, panting tiredly. His cock is still deep in Max’s cunt, and Max stares numbly at the floor below him. Every bite to his bonding nerves binds Max more closely to Joe, makes his body want Joe to own him. He feels like sobbing, and yet he doesn’t. Part of him wants Joe right where he is, deep inside him with his scent all around him.  
  
When Joe doesn’t make a move to fuck him again and doesn’t stimulate his bonding nerves further, the lack of sensation lets Max eventually force his muscles to relax, and Joe slips out of him. Max lies limply on the bench as Joe gets up and puts himself away. Joe watches a drip of cum leak slowly down Max’s leg, then gives him one last slap on the ass, making Max jump with a startled sound.  
  
“This is what you’ll get every time you disobey me, Omega.” He huffs a laugh. “If you’re not careful, soon you’ll have no choice but to do everything I ask of you.”  
  
Max doesn’t move or speak. He simply stares at the floor, still gripping the legs of the bench tightly. He doesn’t want to obey Joe, but it’s getting harder and harder to resist the urge to please him.  
  
“Now,” Joe says to his wives, leaving Max where he’s lying. “Where were we?” He sits down with them, and Max looks hesitantly over at his back. Max’s pussy clenches, wishing for Joe’s cock again, and another dollop of cum leaks out of him. Max shudders.  
  
The women are hesitant, after what Joe just did, but after a while he gets Capable to pick up the book she was reading aloud from and continue hesitantly where she left off before all this happened.  
  
Max is left on the uncomfortable bench until Joe is satisfied with his time with his wives. Before he leaves, he returns to Max and roughly strips his trousers the rest of the way off.  
  
“You’ll wear these from now on,” he says, tossing a length of the same gauzy white cloth the other wives wear across Max’s back. He takes Max’s leather trousers with him and finally leaves. He’s barely out of the room when Angharad rushes toward Max. She lays one hand gently on his shoulder and lifts his face toward her with the other.  
  
She examines the bleeding injury on his neck. “I’m so sorry,” she says. “Are you okay?”  
  
Max shakes his head but gives no other answer. He’s not okay, not when Joe has him nearly under his control.  
  
Max has only been bonded once before, and it was to someone he loved. He doesn’t know what it will be like if he is fully bonded to Joe, doesn’t know if he’ll really ever be completely compliant to the man’s desires, but he has a feeling the urges to do so will get powerful. They already are pretty powerful, and Max is going to have to fight harder to resist them now.  
  
The other women help him up and lift the bench to free his handcuffs from the legs. Max walks sorely over to the washing pool and sinks slowly into it. He sits numbly for a while in the water, then slowly cleans himself up and climbs out. He picks up the long white trousers from the floor that Joe had left him and stares at them miserably. He doesn’t want to willingly put on a symbol of Joe’s ownership of him, but his only alternative is to remain naked, so he slowly steps into them and ties the drawstring at the waist. He then trudges without a word to the edge of the room where he sleeps, the handcuffs still jangling around his wrists. The women give him space, none of them saying anything until long after he’s curled up on his mattress on the floor with his back to the room.


	5. Chapter 5

It’s barely a week after Max conceived that Joe, perhaps in delayed reaction to Max’s short-lived heat, goes into a rut. Max can smell it as soon as Joe opens the vault door, and this time he scrambles up the stairs and goes as far as to hide in the room where Joe had raped him so many times, despite his hatred of that room. Joe’s only got a few wives now who aren’t pregnant, and Max listens with held breath as he goes after them one by one, taking each with a little more vigor than Max usually hears from them. He shakes and tucks himself farther behind the stack of books he’s hiding behind. He can hear them crying out as Joe knots them. Betas can take a knot, but he’s heard it’s not pleasant.  
  
Finally it goes quiet and he hears the vault door close. He stays hidden for a while longer before he dares to come down from the room.  
  
The women are caring for each other in the aftermath, and he stays on the edges of the room. It’s not his fault, but he feels like it is.  
  
Joe only lasts a few hours before he comes back. Apparently what he had wasn’t enough to slake his lust, and he wants more. Max is woken that night by the sound of the door opening again, and he runs for the stairs as he hears Joe’s breather and footsteps move down the entry tunnel to the dome.  
  
He’s just tucked himself back behind the books when he hears Joe start searching the room below. He knows he won’t be able to hide from him long in here. There are only so many places Max can be, and in a rut, Joe’s ability to sniff him out will be strengthened.  
  
“Where is he?” he hears Joe growl, and Max’s heart jumps into his throat, his fears confirmed: Joe is after him.  
  
“I don’t know,” comes the quiet response of one of the women, fearful herself and dazed from being woken.  
  
He hears Joe stomp around the main room a little longer before his footsteps ascend the stairs, and Max starts to shake. Joe steps into the room and pauses. Max hears him sniff lightly, and then his footsteps move toward Max and Max hides his head with his arms. He knows he won’t be able to fight him off, not when his body believes it belongs to Joe.  
  
“There you are,” Joe growls, and Max cringes a moment before Joe grabs one of his arms and tugs. Max does his best to fight back, but Joe grips his other arm and pulls harder, and the stack of books topples over as Max fights Joe’s attempts to get him out.  
  
Joe drags Max, kicking and yelling, toward the bed in the middle of the room and throws him down across it. Max scrambles to climb over it and get away, but Joe grabs his sides and forces him backward again so his legs are overhanging the side of the bed, then pushes him down into the mattress. Max struggles, but it’s an uphill battle with himself just to keep trying to fight Joe. The smell of his rut is intoxicating, and Max’s body just wants to give in.  
  
Joe grips the back of his neck in his large hand and presses his face hard into the bed. Tears come to Max’s eyes at the pain of the pressure against his brand. His other hand reaches around and grabs Max’s crotch, and Max whimpers, his body starting to win out. Joe fumbles one-handed with Max’s trousers, and eventually gets them untied and tugs them down. He tears them all the way off, leaving Max naked and vulnerable, and as his hips press up against Max’s ass, Max can feel through his trousers that he’s already hard. Max whimpers and kicks, but Joe forces him harder into the bed, and his free hand fumbles with his own trousers now, opening them up and sliding them down.  
  
Max isn’t prepared for him as he thrusts in suddenly. Max is dry, and he screams out in pain. Joe, too, grunts painfully, but pulls back and thrusts in hard again. Tears are already running from Max’s eyes.  
  
The hand on the back of his neck loosens and slides down toward his shoulder, and Joe’s other hand moves up and joins it at the other side of Max’s neck. Max cringes as Joe’s fingers massage the bonding nerves on both sides of his neck, and Max bites his lip at the bursts of fog it sends through his brain. He pushes weakly back against the bed, trying to get up, but Joe holds him down and he barely has the strength to try anymore.  
  
Joe sets up a fast pace as he ruts into him painfully, but it doesn’t take a lot of stimulation for Max’s cunt to start producing slick. Between the presses into his bonding nerves and the cock deep inside him, his body gives in readily. Max whimpers and goes limp as Joe starts to slide within him easily, and he picks up his pace, his bare hips slapping against Max’s ass.  
  
It doesn’t take long at all for Joe’s knot to expand, and Max cries out as pleasure sparks through him. He hates this more than anything, but his body revels in it. Max resists as much as he can, forcing the muscles in his vagina to not respond, but his shoulders tense as Joe leans down over him, slides his hand away, and tucks his face into the crook of Max’s neck. He bites down, and Max cries out as his muscles instantly tighten down around Joe’s cock, his body unable to resist the attentions of its alpha. All at once they’re both cumming hard with moans and cries. Max shoots a weak shot across the floor beneath the bed as Joe pumps a load of cum into him.  
  
Joe pauses only a moment as he releases Max’s neck and lets out a sigh of relief. Max too tries to take a moment to breathe, but Joe isn’t even going to give him a break. It’s only a minute before his hips start moving again, and Max moans, his body quivering with overstimulation.  
  
He doesn’t even have to bite down on his bonding nerves this time. Max is still locked around Joe, the sensations inside him heightened by the tightness, and he grabs fistfuls of the sheets below him as Joe fucks him hard and brings them both to orgasm again a few minutes later.  
  
This time Joe doesn’t even stop after he’s cum. His hips keep pumping violently against Max, though he’s barely able to move within him because of their tie. He pulls back hard against Max’s muscles before pressing in deep over and over. Max moans in both pleasure and misery. He doesn’t think he can take this, but there’s nothing he can do.  
  
After a third orgasm that was almost more painful than pleasurable, Max lets out a sob into the bed. Joe, panting behind him, finally lets his motions stop, his knot finally starting to deflate, his body also spent, at least for the moment. When it slips out of Max and Joe stands up with a groan, Max’s muscles clench around nothing, and his head spins from the simultaneous relief and disappointment he feels in that emptiness.  
  
Without Joe holding him in place, Max starts to push himself up from the bed painfully, but Joe puts a hand in the middle of his back and solidly pushes him back down. “Don’t go anywhere,” he says, and instinctually, Max obeys.  
  
He lies there for a minute as Joe steps away, and his mind slowly starts working through the fog. He groans at himself. Is he really going to just obey the man who has repeatedly raped him? Slowly he pushes himself up again, but Joe is suddenly in front of Max and with a hand cupped around the back of Max’s head, pushes him back down into the bed. Max quivers and moans. He doesn’t want to just follow Joe’s will, but it’s getting so difficult not to.  
  
Joe starts tying rope around each of Max’s wrists, and Max tries so hard to make himself fight, but just doesn’t have it in him. Joe laughs, pleased that Max doesn’t fight him as he tethers one rope to the pole of the footboard of the bed, and the other to the pole of the headboard. He’s given Max a little bit of slack to move, but not enough to get up, and he kneels down and pets Max’s hair. Max whimpers beneath his touch. He hates it so much, but his body loves it.  
  
It’s only after Joe has left with a promise to come back for Max that Max’s mind starts working a little more clearly. Without Joe’s scent pressing down all around him, he can push down his body’s natural reactions a little better and think about the situation he finds himself in now.  
  
If Joe hasn’t fully bonded him by now, he will have by the end of his rut. Max stifles a sob, but then gives in and lets himself go with it, his back shaking as he cries into the bed below him. He dreads that his body will make him completely compliant to the alpha. He’d rather die than live like that.  
  
After a few minutes he hears the quiet footsteps of one of the women coming up the stairs, and he shivers in humiliation and doesn’t lift his head when she enters the room.  
  
“Hey, shhh,” Capable says as he continues to cry quietly. She strokes the side of his face gently, and Max isn’t sure if he wants the touch or hates it. Part of him doesn’t want to be touched at all, while part of him yearns for the gentleness of a touch that isn’t Joe’s.  
  
“I… I’m not allowed to untie you,” she says gently when Max finally looks up at her through the tears in his eyes. “He’d punish all of us… But if there’s anything you need… I can bring it for you.”  
  
Max shakes his head and lowers it back down onto the bed. “Just go get some sleep,” he says hoarsely, knowing she was one of the ones Joe had raped earlier that evening. There’s nothing she could bring him that would make this any more bearable.  
  
After a moment Capable gets up and hesitantly leaves him. Max takes in a deep breath and holds it until he’s able to force himself to relax back into the bed.  
  
The sun is just starting to rise when he’s woken again by the sound of the vault door, and his first reaction is to push himself up and find a place to hide. When he remembers he’s tied, however, he falls back into the bed again and clenches his eyes shut as he hears Joe move up the stairs.  
  
“Omega,” Joe says lustfully as he steps into the room. Max quivers. Joe steps closer and Max twitches as the alpha’s hands caress his hips, then move slowly up his body to press into his bundles of nerves again. He nudges Max’s legs open a little wider before he kneels down behind him, frees his cock from his trousers, and forces himself into Max once more.  
  
Max is so exhausted, he doesn’t know if he’d have the energy to fight Joe even if he weren’t bonded and didn’t have to fight against himself as well.  
  
Joe fucks him more slowly this time, though it’s still the somewhat frenzied fuck of an alpha in rut. Max bites his lip and tries to keep himself quiet as he lies there and lets Joe use him with only weak attempts to struggle away. He knows it’s useless.  
  
It’s after Joe has knotted him and cum that he leans forward atop Max and laughs low beside Max’s ear. He nuzzles into Max’s neck and makes Max tense up apprehensively, but then a moment later Joe pulls his face away again. Max pants tiredly.  
  
“I finally have you, don’t I, Omega?” He licks across the wound on Max’s neck, and Max tries hard not to tilt his head up to give Joe better access. “You can barely resist me anymore, much less lift a finger to hurt me, hmm?”  
  
Max is surprised Joe doesn’t move to fuck him again, as he almost always does when he’s locked inside of Max and waiting for his knot to go down. Instead he keeps himself laid out atop Max, his heavy body pressing him hard into the bed as he nibbles at Max’s ear and rains gentle attention onto his bonding nerves. Max is still all too aware of the throbbing organ pressed deep inside him, though. Joe stays there even after his knot is gone and his cock has gone completely soft, and Max shifts uncomfortably.  
  
Finally Joe pushes himself up and pulls out, but instead of leaving Max alone again, he moves around the other side of the bed and crouches down in front of Max. “I think you’re ready to please me in a whole new way,” Joe says with a laugh touching his voice. Max looks up at Joe fearfully.  
  
One of Joe’s hands goes down to stroke his cock as the other reaches for Max’s face. He cups Max’s cheek gently, then shifts his hand and his thick thumb forces its way into Max’s mouth. The pad of the finger presses down on Max’s tongue, then ventures farther back into his mouth. Max’s eyes widen as it pushes farther in, and he wants to bite Joe, but his body won’t listen to him. Joe pushes his thumb in to the joint and presses down again until Max gags.  
  
Max wiggles and tries to pull away, but Joe’s other hand comes up and grips around the back of his head, holding him hard in place as he shoves his thumb nearly down Max’s throat again. Max gags and coughs, and his eyes roll up to look pleadingly at Joe. Joe’s eyes are hard and unsympathetic. If anything, they hold a look of sick anticipation.  
  
After forcing him to gag a few more times, Joe straightens up onto his knees, and the hand that was toying with Max’s mouth moves to grab his still soft cock. Max sees a self-satisfied smile cross the alpha’s face a moment before his eyes dart down to the movement of Joe slowly stroking his cock in front of Max’s face. It still glistens with wetness, and Max clamps his mouth shut. He may not be able to fight Joe very well, but he’s not about to just welcome him into his mouth.  
  
The hand behind Max’s head slides around and down beneath his jaw and neck, and he squeezes Max’s jaw hard until he forces his mouth open and quickly guides his cock inside. Max moans in pain around him, but once he’s inside, Joe loosens his grip on Max’s jaw, and his other hand moves from the base of his cock to the back of Max’s head again.  
  
Joe slides in slowly, moaning indulgently as Max tries and fails to make himself bite down. Joe’s fingers curl into the short hair at the back of Max’s head, and he pulls him slowly toward himself as his hips press forward and he slides deeper into Max’s mouth. Max can taste the saltiness of himself as well as Joe’s cum on his cock, and it makes his stomach churn.  
  
Joe thrusts shallowly and at a leisurely pace into Max’s mouth. It’s a couple moments before he grows hard, and Max gags again and clenches his eyes shut. The fingers cradling his neck and jaw stroke him encouragingly. Max finds his mouth opening almost painfully wide to avoid even touching Joe with his teeth, and he tries again to do the opposite, but can’t. Joe shifts the angle of his hips and fucks into the side of Max’s mouth, his cockhead rubbing hard against the inside of Max’s cheek, making it bulge with every thrust.  
  
Joe seems content to fuck Max this way for a few minutes, and Max takes it quietly, grimly glad that at least Joe isn’t making him suck or use his tongue. But then Joe shifts his hips again, and aims with a hard thrust for the back of Max’s throat, and presses in. Max instantly gags again, and tries to twist his head away.  
  
Joe pulls back the slightest bit, gives Max the span of two breaths, then pushes forward insistently again. Max clamps his throat shut but another gag overtakes him, and Joe shoves forward, forcing his cock down Max’s throat.  
  
“Mm, perfect,” Joe says, sliding in to the root and pressing Max’s face hard into his groin. Max feels his throat bulge against Joe’s hand below him, and he pulls weakly, trying to free himself. Joe’s hands simply close around his head tighter and press his face harder against Joe’s body. Max twitches and jerks uselessly, pulling with his arms against their restraints.  
  
Finally Joe pulls back and lets Max take a few desperate, gasping breaths, then presses in deep again, forcing his way past Max’s attempt to block his throat closed. Then he pulls back and repeats. After a few more painful thrusts like this, Max lets out a muffled sound of defeat and stops fighting it as Joe presses in to the root again. His wrists twist uselessly against the bindings holding him in place on the bed, and he grips the edge of the mattress hard as Joe freely skull-fucks him.  
  
“Yes, just like that,” Joe says in a pleased tone. “Just let Daddy have his way.” He pulls back to Max’s mouth but doesn’t even give him time to take a proper breath before he’s forcing his way down Max’s throat again, and Max chokes on his dick again, his lungs pulling desperately for air. Joe crushes Max’s nose against his groin and starts twitching his hips in small little thrusts, none long enough to remove himself from Max’s throat, and Max starts to struggle again as his need for air becomes more dire.  
  
Finally Joe releases his tight hold and lets Max pull back and breathe, but the reprieve is short-lived, and Max holds in a deep breath as Joe goes back to fucking him hard. Saliva runs slowly out of Max’s mouth, coating his chin and Joe’s balls with each thrust into his face.  
  
Lancing his cock down Max’s throat again, Joe holds him in place and laughs quietly. “Use your tongue,” he commands as Max’s throat spasms and chokes around him. Max would groan if he could, and he shakes his head weakly.  
  
“Might I remind you,” Joe says slowly, and his hand slides down the back of Max’s head, his thumb reaching for his neck, “that you belong to me now?” He presses hard into one of Max’s bonding wounds, and Max crumples his eyes shut as his body responds, his tongue reaching out to lick at Joe’s balls, his body eager to please his new master. Joe moans and presses Max’s face harder down on him for a moment before he releases him and Max pulls off, gasping for air.  
  
“Keep going,” Joe says warningly, and Max keens quietly, but runs his tongue along Joe’s shaft and sucks on him lightly. Joe thrusts slowly now, in and out of Max’s mouth, leaving his throat alone, at least for the moment.  
  
Max’s eyes widen as Joe’s knot starts to inflate and he presses in hard again to fit the growing bulge into Max’s mouth. Max shakes his head again, terrified that Joe is going to manage to lock himself into Max’s mouth. Max would rather die than live loyal to Joe, but he doesn’t want to die with a cock shoved down his throat.  
  
Joe pulls back, lets Max breathe, then pushes in again. He repeats the motion and by the time he pushes in for the third time, his knot is almost fully inflated, and he leaves his cock down Max’s throat until it is. Max shakes and tries to jerk away as he feels it finish expanding behind his teeth, pressed solidly into his mouth. Joe laughs and moves his hips in hard little thrusts, enjoying the feeling of Max choking around him as he’s helpless to pull off.  
  
Max’s head is feeling light and he’s afraid he’s about to pass out, until Joe finally loosens his hold on Max’s head and Max manages to force his mouth open just wide enough to pull off of Joe’s knot. Joe lets him pull off completely, and Max coughs and gasps and pants.  
  
It’s not long before Joe grabs his head again and his cock head is pressing at his lips. Max feels helpless as his body responds and lets him in. His jaw is painfully sore, and it hurts as he opens it again. Joe doesn’t try to get his knot into Max’s mouth this time, but he thrusts hard in and out of him again until he finally grunts hard as he cums, and the load of semen fills what little space is left in Max’s mouth. It runs past his lips and down over his chin, but the flow keeps coming, and in a low voice, Joe says, “swallow.”  
  
With a whimper Max closes his lips around Joe’s shaft and swallows the flow of cum until it finally stops and Joe pulls out. Max lays his head on the bed and pants tiredly, his eyes pressed closed as Joe strokes his hair almost lovingly.  
  
“That’s my good omega,” he says, sounding sated and pleased, then he tucks himself away, stands up, and leaves Max alone again. After a while, Max moves his head and wipes his chin off on the bed below him, but the smell of it still fills his nostrils.  
  
Over the next day and a half, Joe comes back and rapes him several more times. Max loses count of how many. He knows only that the other women have been ordered not to untie him, and that he can do nothing but kneel uncomfortably on the floor, feeling the cum leak slowly down his legs as he waits for Joe to come back and fill him again.  
  
He’s pulled repeatedly between pleasure and hate, his body when Joe is around wanting nothing more than to be touched and filled and to obey Joe’s every order, and his mind when Joe is not around falling into dark thoughts of self-loathing and hatred of Joe.  
  
Between sessions, one or more of the other wives come up to him, give him food and water and try to clean him up as best they can. It’s humiliating, but a meager comfort, so he lets them.  
  
Finally Joe’s rut is over, and after one more fucking, just because he can, Joe finally unties Max’s wrists. Max doesn’t move at first, then he slides slowly off the bed and collapses on the floor beside it. He can’t cry anymore; he cried himself out long ago, but he lies there unmoving after Joe leaves him, until Toast comes and finally makes him stand up and leads him downstairs to clean himself up and sleep on his mattress.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> After this point, things are going to get rocky. I’m at a roadblock, so thought I should get your opinions on how you’d like to see the rest of this fic go.
> 
> As the summary of this fic would suggest, the original plan was to eventually focus on Max’s healing process after all this torment, because it’s been something I’ve kind of wanted to try. I’ve been plotting it out and trying to write some key parts and… I’m just not into it. This chapter was actually filler added in just so I could have something enjoyable to post until I figure out the rest.
> 
> So, I can keep trying, and it might take a long time, and hopefully I’ll find some way to make it work that doesn’t bore the hell out of me. Or, I can just kind of keep torturing Max, because you all know that’s what I love most. Maybe he’ll get a happy ending, maybe it’ll just be misery from start to finish. I don’t know.
> 
> The first option, the misery ends now, and so do the sexy times, except for some vanilla consensual sex later on, which I don’t know about you, but really doesn’t do it for me. The second option, you get more hurt porn until I find a way to conclude it.
> 
> Please leave me a comment (sign out to go anon if you have to) with what you’d like to see out of this fic. Feel free to drop in random ideas and prompts, too. You guys are what keep me writing. <3


	6. Chapter 6

Max stops hiding from Joe. There’s no point, and it only seems to irritate the alpha. Irritating Joe had never been the goal, but Max still hates that it’s the main reason he doesn’t want to hide anymore. He shouldn’t care, but he does. He’s fully bonded by now, and though the bond had only taken over his body early on, now it’s starting to sink into his mind as well.  
  
He doesn’t participate on the days Joe wants his wives to read to him, or play music or sing for him, but he stays in Joe’s sights, and for a while Joe seems happy with that.  
  
Part of him actually likes when Joe is around. It revels in the scent of his alpha pheromones, but Max tries hard to shove that part down. He hates knowing that his biology has control over him. Even his dreams torment him. More than once he has woken up to find himself hard, only to realize it was Joe he had been dreaming about.  
  
After several days of not doing anything to attract Joe’s attention, Max thinks maybe things will be okay, or as okay as they can be, considering he’s captive and pregnant with pups he doesn’t want. He at least thinks that Joe will leave him alone from here on out. It’s hard some days to keep himself from going to his alpha for the false comfort of his scent and touch, but Max fights himself all the way, trying to keep control despite his biology.  
  
When Joe comes during the day, Max stares dully at the group from the stairs or his mattress while they entertain the man, and when Joe comes at night, Max curls up and covers his ears against the sour sounds of panting and moaning, but always he stays where Joe can find him.  
  
Joe seems to be happy with Max’s behavior, and on the occasions he does interact with Max, it’s not the harsh forcefulness he had shown when he raped Max over and over again, but instead gradually becomes soft touches and gentle words.  
  
When he notices Max gathering as many of the blankets and sheets as the others will let him have, and starting to make a meager nest, Joe brings him a pile of blankets and pillows from his own room. Max accepts the gift quietly, and puts one of the blankets to his nose, inhaling slowly. Joe’s scent is strong on it, and it makes Max’s body relax in a way that feels so wrong it makes his skin crawl.  
  
Max had resisted starting to nest as long as he could. He doesn’t want to accept that he’s pregnant, doesn’t want to accept that the babies’ father is the man who had raped him. But he just felt this itch, almost a craving, to have a nest. He doesn’t think the comfort and security of it will actually do him any good in a place like this, but he couldn’t stand much longer to not have one. He internally curses himself even as he carries an armload of Joe’s blankets over to his mattress. He feels like his mind is going to tear itself apart. He doesn’t want a nest and would be happy to be rid of any reminder that Joe exists at all; yet at the same time, the prospect of being able to be surrounded by his scent all the time is more than he can resist.  
  
He should want to throw these back in Joe’s face. He should want to pile them up and light them on fire. But instead he finds himself going back to collect the pillows at Joe’s feet as Joe watches him with satisfaction.  
  
He considers giving the other blankets and sheets back to the women, but instead piles Joe’s pillows and blankets on top of them, and spends an afternoon arranging and rearranging them. It’s not comfortable here no matter what he does, and while the scent of Joe on the blankets makes his body relax into the soft cushion of them, he still hates that he’s been reduced to this. Finally he gets it as good as he thinks he ever will, and curls up with his back to the room.  
  
The smell of Joe only makes his dreams worse, and there are nights where Max wakes up rock hard, and gets up and almost tears his nest apart. But each time he stops, something within him twisting painfully at the prospect of destroying it. He tries to shake off the feeling of Joe’s hands on his skin, the emptiness he feels without the alpha’s cock buried deep inside him.  
  
Joe usually only gives Max cursory attention on his way to be entertained by the others. A few words, a brief caress; Max shudders within himself, torn between hating it and yearning for more.  
  
“You’re doing well,” Joe says to him one day, as if he has any idea. He crouches by the side of Max’s mattress and reaches out to Max, curled up in his nest, and caresses the side of Max’s stomach. Max, still sleepy, can hardly fight it as his body moves of its own accord, opening up from his curled position to give Joe better access, and Joe smiles, his hand sliding to Max’s stomach, where he rubs slow circles across his skin. The touch and Joe’s smell send a jolt of pleasure and comfort through Max’s gut, while that voice in the back of his mind growls in rage over what Joe has done to him.  
  
“I look forward to watching my pups grow within you,” Joe says, and Max can tell he’s smiling. Despite the comfort he feels slowly seeping throughout his body, nausea starts to spread through him as well, the two lacing together within him to create a feeling that makes him want to squirm under Joe’s touch. He is not looking forward to this pregnancy, and yet as soon as he says that to himself, he realizes that part of him actually is. A part of him is so satisfied with the feeling of being impregnated, with the knowledge that he’ll be bringing the pups of a strong alpha into the world, and it makes the nausea spike harder through him. He yearns to have and hold and nurse his pups, to raise them as they grow. And at the same time, he wishes they didn’t exist at all.  
  
Max closes his eyes as he fights with the opposing feelings within him, and finally Joe stands up and his hand leaves Max’s stomach. Max quickly curls up tight around himself, as if that would have any chance of protecting him.  
  
After a while he opens his eyes again and watches Joe over the edge of his nest as he has the women entertain him. Max wants to get up and go to him, but he fights himself, and stays put until Joe is gone, and he finally feels himself relax in a way he feels a little more comfortable with.  
  
There’s little to do in the vault, and little to keep his attention when Joe isn’t around, aside from reading or talking to the others, neither of which interests him. He dwells more and more on what he’s going through, on what Joe has forced upon him. It’s tearing him apart, and he doesn’t know if he can stand it much longer. He doesn’t want any of this. He doesn’t want to be here, he doesn’t want to be pregnant, he doesn’t want to feel drawn to Joe, or comforted by his presence and scent, and yet he does feel all of those things. He feels weak and hates himself for giving in to this, for letting it control him. And he fights back. Every single day, he fights back, but it only makes it worse. He can’t seem to get traction against the feelings that have taken over, and it feels like a constant, useless struggle.  
  
When Joe is gone, sometimes he’ll think he has a grip on it, but that is all shattered the next time Joe walks into the room, and Max goes weak at the sight and smell of him.  
  
When Joe comes in one night and goes not to one of the women, but to Max himself, Max doesn’t fight him. He melts into Joe’s touch, and as Joe urges him gently out of his nest, Max obeys. His chest tightens as Joe starts to lead him up the stairs toward the room with the lone bed, and he wants to pull back, to curl back up in the safety of his nest, but his body moves forward, drawn to follow Joe.  
  
Inside the room at the top of the stairs, Joe slowly takes off his breathing apparatus as his eyes sweep over Max. “Undress for me,” he says lustfully as he starts to shed his armor.  
  
Max feels his hands start to shake in fear, but at the same time, they reach for his trousers and slowly untie them. He strips them off, and as he stands up again, he feels the muscles of his cunt clench with need as Joe starts to open his own trousers and his large cock comes into view. The horror of the situation strikes Max a split second after the desire does, as the waning rational side of his brain points out that he’s going to be fucked again. He doesn’t want to be fucked anymore. He doesn’t want to feel pleasure at the hands of a man who has effectively raped his mind as well as his body.  
  
But now that Joe has raped his mind as he has, Max wants the pleasure of his cock inside him just as much as he doesn’t want it. He fights against the need within him, and manages to shake his head weakly and take a shaky step back away from Joe.  
  
Joe simply finishes removing his trousers and takes a step toward Max, and Max freezes in fear under his gaze. Joe closes the distance between them and rests his hands on Max’s upper arms, gripping lightly as he lowers his face into the crook of Max’s neck and licks at one of the freshly healed scars at the base of it. Max’s body relaxes against him as he pulls him closer and sucks at the spot above Max’s bonding nerves. The stimulation sends a burst of desire through Max, and as Joe sucks harder, a quiet moan escapes him.  
  
Max scrunches his eyes shut and pushes back against his own mind. He doesn’t want this. But at the same time, he does, and the shame of having betrayed himself so thoroughly, of having let himself become this, a literal slave, tears through him so hard it feels like a physical pain. He tries weakly to push away from Joe, but Joe’s hands tighten around his upper arms, and his mouth slides across Max’s neck to suck at the bonding nerves at the other side, and Max goes weak against him again.  
  
“Come,” Joe says quietly against his neck, guiding Max toward the bed. “Present yourself to me.”  
  
Max climbs shakily onto the bed on his knees and lowers himself down to his elbows. His mind screams at him to stop this, but his body keeps moving. He needs that cock inside him, needs it filling him up almost as much as he had needed it when he was in heat. He looks back past his shoulder at Joe and adjusts his legs, spreading them wider and putting his cunt on display for the alpha.  
  
Joe smiles smugly and moves forward, his hands reaching to caress Max’s ass and hips. He slides his hands higher up Max’s body and guides him again, moving him back so his knees are perched on the edge of the bed and Joe is between his legs. He puts a hand on the back of Max’s hip and presses down gently, and Max complies, spreading his legs a little wider for Joe. With a self-satisfied chuckle, Joe’s hand slides down over Max’s cunt, and Max bites his lip to hold back a moan.  
  
He doesn’t know why he bothers. He’s already thrown out any sense of dignity and self respect he ever had. He’s let himself become this man’s breeding stock and fucktoy, it doesn’t matter anymore if he moans while Joe fucks him. But still there’s that part of him that hates this more than anything, and it fights on. He presses his eyes closed and wishes he were stronger. He wishes he could do more than just present himself to Joe and wait obediently to be fucked. But his body and even a little bit of his mind wants that cock, and he stays where he is.  
  
Joe slides a couple fingers into him, finds him already getting wet, and chuckles again. His other hand goes to his cock and he begins stroking it as he slides his fingers out and slowly back into Max. Max bites his lip again but gives in and lets himself moan quietly.  
  
In the beginning, when Joe raped Max with the goal of impregnating him, the wait between Joe undressing and when he entered Max was agonizing because Max knew the horror that was coming and knew there was nothing he could do about it. Now it is agonizing because he just wants him inside him, and he’s not. Max lowers his face to the bed and shudders.  
  
Finally Joe’s fingers slide out of him and he moves forward, his cock in hand, and it’s only a moment before the thick shaft is squeezing into Max, and Max moans in relief. His body loves being filled like this, and his muscles are already squeezing around Joe in slow pulses, begging for him to give him the pleasure that by now has become so familiar.  
  
Joe sinks in slowly, and both his hands grip Max’s hips as he presses in deep. Max takes an equally slow, deep breath, and lets it out as Joe pulls back to the head and presses deep into him again. His pace gradually quickens and it is just what Max had been needing.  
  
Max shakes his head weakly. He doesn’t want this. He tries to convince himself of that, but his cunt clenches again, and the pleasure of the friction within him makes him moan. He shakes his head again. This is still rape. Max doesn’t want it.  
  
And yet he does nothing, just stays on the bed as Joe fucks him. Again and again he tries to make himself pull away, to no avail.  
  
When Joe’s knot starts to expand, Max’s stomach thrills. It stretches him wider and wider, until Joe slams into him hard and Max cries out as he locks down around him, tying them together as Joe cums inside him. Joe grunts as he spills his seed, his hands gripping Max’s hips hard, and Max moans and gasps as the pleasure overtakes him, shuddering hard as he orgasms.  
  
When they come down from their orgasms, they’re both left panting tiredly, but both are satisfied. Joe leans his weight against Max’s hips, and when Max’s breathing starts to slow, he gives him a little thrust just to hear him moan again.  
  
Max is still clenched tight around Joe when Joe starts fucking him again, and this time Joe grips Max’s shoulders and pulls him upright against him, wrapping one arm across Max’s chest, his hand up by his neck to toy with his bonding nerves. Max automatically tilts his head to expose himself to it. He squeezes his eyes shut, hating what his body is doing in response to Joe’s touches, but he can’t help it. Being fucked and touched by his bonded alpha sends shots of euphoria through his brain.  
  
Joe picks up his pace, pounding into Max until he cums again with a heavy grunt, and Max feels full in a way that is simultaneously uncomfortable and perfect.  
  
Joe holds him against him, breathing against his neck until his cock softens and his knot deflates, and then he slides out of Max and lets Max collapse tiredly on the bed. Semen leaks from between his legs, and Max thinks it should disgust him more than it does.  
  
Joe stays by Max for a few minutes, sitting next to him on the edge of the bed as Max pants into the mattress, the alpha’s eyes sweeping over his sweat-streaked body. His hand strokes gently down Max’s arm.  
  
“Omega,” Joe says quietly, now rubbing slow circles across Max’s skin. “You’ve never told me your name.”  
  
It strikes Max briefly that this is the first time Joe has actually asked. Is he finally seeing Max as more than just an object to bear him children? Is this the effect the bond has on him?  
  
“Max,” he responds without even hesitating, and part of him instantly tightens up with regret at having given away the last part he had kept of himself. But the larger, louder part of him wants to give Joe everything he wants, and that part of him feels content as Joe’s hand strokes down his arm gently again, his voice repeating the name.  
  
“Max…”


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For those of you who have been reading prior to the release of this chapter, I went back and edited a few of the earlier chapters to add in some things I overlooked in my rush to write disgusting porn. They’re just superficial details (the brand and some white trousers to match the wives’ clothing) and they don’t really affect the story much, but I just thought I’d mention it in case a future mention of either of those things confuses anybody.

He can’t sleep that night.  
  
It wasn’t until Joe finally got up and left that the nausea set in in Max’s gut. He is truly lost. He just let Joe fuck him without so much as lifting a muscle to stop him or escape.  
  
There’s no doubt. The bond is complete.  
  
He’s given Joe everything. His body, his mind, his name… He is far from being his own man anymore. He belongs solely to Joe, and the thought makes him want to scream in rage. He had told himself he would never belong to anybody like this again. Not after he lost his mate and his child at the same time. He told himself he would never let go of the bond he had with Jessie. For years, nothing could have made him let go of that, but now the bond is as dead as she is, replaced by one with a rapist warlord.  
  
A bond should be a happy thing. It goes without saying that it should be a consensual thing. He remembers what it was like when he wanted it. The bond was joyous, it made him feel complete, not torn two ways like he is now. Joe now brings part of him a certain sick comfort, but he knows that he’ll never stop hating it. And he doesn’t want to ever stop hating it. It’s wrong, and he doesn’t want this.  
  
It’s as he just starts to see the edge of the sky lighten with the promise of sunrise outside the dome windows that Max finally gets up and walks slowly up to the wall of glass at the front of the dome and looks down. The way he sees it, he’s got two choices: feel like this, and be stuck here, forced to carry out this false life until his children are born, if not longer… or get out of here. And he only sees a chance of getting out one way: down. He’s examined the back of the vault door; there’s no way to open it from the inside, and Joe is the only one who opens it from the outside. Max has no chance of slipping past him when that happens, not when he goes weak in the knees at the very smell of him, and not when he can’t bring himself to fight against Joe.  
  
But here, now, while Joe is gone, he has a chance. He steps up to one of the larger panes of glass and puts his hand on it. It’s cool to the touch without the sun beating down on it. Below he can see a few meager fires burning amongst the people living at the foot of the rock towers.  
  
Even this is difficult, though he wants it more than anything right now. The thought of upsetting Joe, the thought of killing his pups is almost more than he can take. But that’s exactly why he needs to do it. He can’t live like this.  
  
He’d kick the window out if he still had boots, but Joe took those away long ago. He searches the room quickly, finds a piece of cloth left by one of the others, and wraps it snugly around his hand. Approaching the window again, he pulls his fist back, hesitates just the slightest bit, then launches it forward.   
  
It takes a few punches before the window finally breaks out, and he thinks by then he might have broken his hand despite the padding of the cloth. His arm punches through the glass, and he hisses as he pulls it back and a shard of glass slices his arm open. He doesn’t care; he starts grabbing pieces of glass and pulling them out quickly, breaking the hole bigger.  
  
“What are you doing?!”  
  
Max glances over his shoulder to see a few of the others standing outside the passageway to the room they sleep in, looking sleepy but shocked.  
  
“Let me do this,” Max growls, and quickly breaks out a few more pieces of glass. His hands are sliced open, but he doesn’t care. He quickly starts to squeeze himself through the opening.  
  
“No!” Angharad is suddenly there and grabs him forcefully and tries to pull him back. He fights, but the others join in, and gradually pull him away from the window.  
  
“You can’t!” someone yells.  
  
“It’s not your choice!” Max responds.  
  
They pull him down to the floor and Toast and Capable have to sit on him as he struggles madly. “Let me go!”  
  
“That’s not the answer. You’re stronger than that!”  
  
“I’m not!” Max snaps back. He collapses against the ground below them with a broken sob. He covers his face with both hands, not caring that he’s smearing blood across it. “I’m not…”  
  
“Yes, you are,” Angharad says, kneeling by his head and putting her hand to the side of his face. “This isn’t forever. You just have to hold on.”  
  
“You’re just a beta,” he mumbles through his hands. “You can’t know what it’s like to be forced to want a life like this…”  
  
Angharad strokes his hair slowly, and when Max moves his hands and looks up at her, she looks torn, but she shakes her head. “I can’t know. But I do know this isn’t what you want to do.”  
  
Max could almost laugh if the situation were different. She can’t know that either.  
  
They wrap his arm and hands tightly to slow the bleeding, and try to let him up, but he makes another attempt to get out the window, so they pin him again and try to comfort him and talk him down. Max cringes when he hears the vault door open and Joe’s footsteps move down the tunnel, undoubtedly coming to bring them their food for the morning.  
  
Max hears his footsteps stop suddenly as he enters the room and surveys the sight before him.  
  
“What has he done?” Joe says in a low voice, just on the edge of anger.  
  
Nobody answers, and Max sees guilty faces all around him. Between the broken window and the bandages on him, he knows it’s clear what he has done.  
  
Joe stomps forward suddenly, and the two women on top of Max scramble off fearfully as Joe grips Max by the throat and lifts him up. “Did you try to get out?” His voice tells Max exactly how much trouble he’s in, and Max looks at him fearfully as his hands go to Joe’s hand to try to loosen it from his neck. Joe looks down at his wrapped arm and hands, then grabs his injured arm and releases his neck. Max pulls weakly as Joe lifts the wrapping and looks underneath. He makes an annoyed grunt, then pulls Max up to his feet and drags him by his wrist toward the tunnel entrance.  
  
“Get the Organic Mechanic!” Joe yells to someone outside, and Max hears a faint acknowledgement before somebody goes running off. Next Joe drags Max over to one of the chairs in front of the chalk board Miss Giddy uses on occasion to teach, and throws him down in it. “Stay,” Joe says dangerously, and Max can’t help but obey.  
  
He hunches in the chair, his body quivering in fear, and Joe stands impatiently by until what feels like an eternity later, when the man who had examined Max when he first got here shows up with a heavy bag of medical supplies clutched in his arms. Max shivers with disgust at the memory of the man’s fingers sliding between his legs after he first discovered that Max was an omega.   
  
“His arm,” Joe says, motioning to Max, and the doctor comes and crouches by him. Max doesn’t want him touching him, but Joe’s gaze is harsh upon him, so he sits still as the Organic Mechanic unwraps his arm and inspects the deep cut. Max grimaces as he prods at it.  
  
“Gonna need some stitches,” the man says, and Max shivers again as he watches him dig up a needle.  
  
Max twitches reflexively as the Organic Mechanic makes the first stitch, and Joe growls behind his mask. “Don’t move,” he says to Max warningly, and Max puts his head down and forces himself to be still as the needle goes through his skin again and again.  
  
When it’s stitched up and wrapped, the Organic Mechanic inspects his hands and wraps them as well.  
  
“Could’a been worse,” he says as he finally stands up. “He’ll heal just fine.” He puts his hand to Max’s face briefly and examines his color, then starts to turn and leave, but Joe stops him.  
  
“Don’t go anywhere,” he tells the Organic Mechanic. “He might need more treatment after I’m done with him.”  
  
Max’s eyes widen. Surely Joe wouldn’t dare hurt his pregnant omega, would he? Max had thought that the bond had been affecting Joe as well, and he knows that bonded alphas will do just about anything to protect their omega. But it quickly becomes apparent that even if Joe has bonded with Max, his anger over what Max has done is great enough to outweigh that.  
  
Joe stands in front of him, his gaze hard and unforgiving. Max puts his head back down and avoids meeting his eyes.  
  
Suddenly Joe grabs his arm and hauls him up. “You would kill yourself rather than be with me?”  
  
Max cringes away from him, but doesn’t fight him.  
  
“You belong to me,” Joe continues, “and those are my children growing inside of you. You don’t get to take that away from me.” Holding his arm tightly, he drags Max over to his mattress and throws him on his front across his nest. Max quickly tries to get up, but Joe drops to his knees behind him and immediately tears Max’s trousers down. It’s only seconds more before Joe has his cock out and his body is looming over Max’s. Max whimpers beneath him as he starts to rub his soft cock between his legs, though at the same time, his body longs to have Joe inside him.  
  
Joe grows hard more quickly than usual. Max lies still beneath him, but he has fear creeping up his throat at the harshness of Joe’s motions and touch.  
  
“I’d fuck your cunt,” Joe hisses in his ear, “if I didn’t know you’d enjoy it too much for it to be a punishment.” All at once his hands spread Max’s ass cheeks and his cock jabs forward. It takes him a couple tries to find his mark, and then he forces his entire length quickly into Max’s ass.  
  
Max screams in surprise and agony, his hands gripping two fistfuls of his nest, his eyes clenching shut. Joe pulls back and slams in again, his motions rough as his unlubricated cock tears into Max’s body, and Max lets out another scream.  
  
“Stop! Joe, stop it!” Angharad rushes forward to try to protect Max, but Joe simply swings his arm as she reaches them, shoving her away. His hips pull back and snap forward again, and Max releases another agonized cry.   
  
He can’t help but practically wail as Joe fucks him hard in the ass. It’s excruciating beyond words, and Max slowly claws at his nest, trying weakly to escape from Joe. Joe grunts in his ear as he rapes him, his hands gripping Max’s hips hard. Max reaches back to push against Joe’s hips, but it doesn’t slow the alpha’s assault.   
  
Max is already sobbing in pain, unable to imagine how it could possibly get worse, when Joe’s knot starts to grow after several minutes of painful fucking, and Max’s eyes open wide.  
  
“No, please,” he begs, “I can’t-“ He chokes on his words and a sob bursts out of him. “Can’t take-“  
  
Joe continues thrusting hard, his knot growing and stretching Max wider with every passage. Max shakes and tries to push Joe away again, but it’s useless. One hard thrust is finally more than Max can take, and another scream rips out of him as he feels himself tear around Joe’s knot. Joe grunts hard as he continues to force the bulge in and out of Max, each thrust taking more and more effort, though the way is eased by the fresh lubrication of Max’s blood. Max sobs helplessly.  
  
With one last, heavy grunt, Joe slams in hard and spills his seed deep into Max’s body. Max collapses below him, broken both physically and mentally. Even with how Joe has treated him before, he wouldn’t have expected that he would be able to do something like this to him, at least not now that they are bonded and Max is carrying his pups.  
  
After a minute of recuperation, Joe gives an experimental tug of his hips, and Max whimpers. Joe’s knot is fitted snugly inside of Max, though not quite locked into him the way it would be if he had fucked his cunt. He tugs again, pushing down on Max’s hips, and Max lets out a weak cry of pain as Joe pulls past his stretched and torn ring of muscle and frees his cock.  
  
Joe gets up and examines the damage he’s done from a distance. Max dares to look up at him out of the corner of his eye as he lies limply across his disheveled nest. Joe’s expression holds no hint of remorse or sympathy.   
  
“I didn’t enjoy doing that to you, Max,” Joe says sternly. “But you needed to learn. It’s not in your interest to upset me, or try to take anything away from me.”  
  
Max closes his eyes as he feels a drip of something run down between his legs. Whether it’s blood or cum, he doesn’t know. He hasn’t been in this much pain since Joe pressed a glowing, hot brand to the back of his neck.  
  
Joe steps from between Max’s splayed legs. “Fix him up,” he says to the Organic Mechanic. Max opens his eyes again and watches fearfully as the Organic Mechanic moves closer, a drop of saliva dripping from his grinning mouth. He steps up to Max, crouches beside him, and one grubby hand comes to rest on Max’s ass. Max shudders and closes his eyes. He doesn’t ever want to be touched again, but knows he has no choice.  
  
The Organic Mechanic pulls his cheek aside, and Max gasps quietly as a finger slides slowly into his ass. It presses in, and the sharp sting of the contact to his torn flesh and even this minimal stretch is too much, and Max cries out into his nest.  
  
“Yep, ripped him up pretty good,” the doctor comments, pressing straight into the tear and pulling another cry out of Max before he slides his finger out and starts digging through his medical bag. Max cracks his eyes open to watch him, but a wave of dizziness hits him in the aftermath of what has happened, and he doesn’t try to fight it as his mind succumbs and he passes out.


	8. Chapter 8

After Joe’s punishment, Max feels like a broken shell of his former self. He still hates Joe, but he doesn’t even internally fight anymore. He is bonded and owned and that’s just the way it is.  
  
Part of him had hoped that Joe’s cruelness might do something to damage the bond between them, to release Max at least a little from feeling drawn to Joe, but even after all that, the scent and sight of the alpha when he enters the dome make Max yearn for him. It sickens him now more than ever.  
  
Joe makes quick work of the situation Max had caused, and before the day is over, the broken window is replaced, and Max finds himself chained. Joe has a metal ring bolt drilled into the floor, to which they attach a long chain with a shackle that Joe locks around Max’s wrist. Max is left with freedom to move about most of the room, but the chain runs short and stops him before he can reach the front of the dome.  
  
The day after Joe had brutally sodomized and torn Max, the alpha goes back to acting like nothing had happened. He greets Max with gentle touches and soft words, though Max is sure he knows he’s fully won the battle now. Max is his.  
  
Max is still living with his punishment, every moment of every day. His hole is in constant pain, such that he can hardly sit down. He resorts to spending most of his time in his nest, curled up on his side to alleviate as much of the pain as he can. To add insult to injury, he has to put up with daily examinations from the Organic Mechanic to monitor and ensure his healing process. He hates it, but Joe always accompanies the man, and Max can’t bring himself to disobey Joe’s orders to let the doctor practically violate him.  
  
For a while he even rejects the other wives’ attempts to comfort and care for him. They dragged him into this situation. If they had just let him go through with it, Joe never would have caught him, and none of this would be a problem anymore.  
  
They still try, though, and every time one comes by to offer him food, or to talk to him or to try to bring him something, he puts his back to her and refuses to speak. It’s not until his injuries have healed and he has some distance from the experience that he starts acknowledging them again.  
  
Angharad finds him sitting at the edge of the pool, his white trousers rolled up to his knees, his legs in the water, and she sits down next to him. She’s given up trying to speak to him, knowing he won’t hear any of it, but when she notices his eyes actually rise from the water and look at her, she puts a gentle, if sad, smile on her face.  
  
“I’m sorry,” she says. “We didn’t mean for any of that to happen to you.”  
  
Max locks eyes with her and holds her gaze for a moment before he lowers his eyes back to the pool and his bare feet in the water. He gives a quiet grunt in response.  
  
“All we have is each other,” she says quietly.  
  
Max holds his tongue against saying that he’s never really been one of them, never felt like he’s a part of their group. It doesn’t matter anymore. What’s done is done. He’s learned his lesson, and knows now that his place is here, to serve his alpha and bring his pups into the world. He knows Angharad would never agree, though, so he doesn’t voice that either.  
  
“Our babies will not be warlords,” she whispers under her breath, and Max looks up at her again. She must hold some crazy ideas in her head that they’ll get away from here some day. Max holds no such delusions. He’s been marked, he’s been bonded, impregnated, and chained. There’s no getting away from this now. There’s no escaping Joe.  
  
As if on cue, the vault door opens, and Max can’t help the reflexive cringe that his body does. Joe has left him alone while he’s been healing, but every time he comes in, Max fears that he’s going to want to fuck him. Angharad puts her hand on his arm briefly, then stands up and moves toward Joe, something Max only sees her do when she’s attempting to protect someone else from him.   
  
Max tries to make himself small and invisible where he sits, and physically holds on to the edge of the pool, trying to keep himself in place as Joe’s scent hits him and the urge to be enveloped in that scent again tries to overtake him.  
  
“Joe,” Angharad says. “There’s something I wanted to show you.” She leads him over to one of the stacks of books at the edge of the room, and Max tunes out their quiet conversation. Angharad is surprisingly good at tricking Joe into thinking she doesn’t hate him when she wants to manipulate him. Max supposes that’s why she’s Joe’s favorite, though he’s starting to worry that he might be taking up that position in Joe’s mind.  
  
As an omega, Max is practically made for an alpha. He’s sure that fucking him is often more pleasing to Joe than sex with his beta wives, since Max is built to accommodate and stimulate a knot. And even though every session with Joe is rape, Joe probably doesn’t see it that way. Not with how Max can hardly keep himself from moaning in pleasure as Joe fucks him, and not when Joe can make him cum any time he wants.  
  
It’s a few days later when Joe comes in with Max very much on his mind. He goes to Max’s nest and seats himself on the edge of his mattress. Max had fixed up his nest after Joe fucked him across it, but it’ll never be the same. A nest is an omega’s safe, private space, but it no longer feels safe since Joe violated that along with Max’s body. He goes to it now only out of habit and for the comfort of Joe’s scent.  
  
“Max. Come here,” Joe says, and Max looks up from the book in his hands. He closes it and sets it aside and gets up, the chain hanging from his wrist jangling as he moves. He wants to be near Joe and also doesn’t, but of course it’s the bonded part of him that wins out.  
  
Joe pats the mattress beside him and Max sits down. The alpha’s hand goes to the side of Max’s face, cupping and caressing it gently, and Max leans into his touch, closing his eyes as his stomach churns. This is the man who had violently raped and injured him, and yet he can’t help but want to be near him. Max rests a hand against his stomach. He’s not showing yet, but he can feel deep in his core that his pups… Joe’s pups… are healthy and growing.  
  
Joe moves to stroking Max’s hair, and his other hand goes to his trousers. He opens them and frees his cock, and starts stroking it slowly. Max watches without a word, torn between dreading and needing to be fucked. After a few minutes of stroking himself, Joe’s hand slides around to the back of Max’s head, and he pulls him forward gently.  
  
Max moves easily onto his knees beside Joe, and he rests his hands on Joe’s thigh. He watches as Joe gradually grows hard, and then Joe coaxes him forward again, and he leans down toward Joe’s groin.  
  
He hesitates before he puts his lips on the head of Joe’s cock. Wanting to please this man makes him sick, but the drive to do so is more than he can handle. He leans down a little farther and takes the head of Joe’s cock into his mouth. He can taste the droplet of precum on his tip, and he thought he would find the flavor disgusting like last time, but now it seems to do the same thing for him as Joe’s scent does. He takes him in a little deeper, sliding his lips down Joe’s shaft. Joe pets the back of his head encouragingly, and leans back a bit to give Max more room.  
  
Max hesitates again when he’s got the tip of Joe’s cock against the back of his throat. He reaches out his tongue and licks Joe’s length to keep him occupied, but he doesn’t know if he can willingly take him in and deepthroat him. Instead, he slides back then forward again, stimulating Joe as much as he can. He bobs his head slowly, working his tongue and pulling a quiet moan out of Joe.  
  
Max knows the others are in the room, but he doesn’t want to think about if they’re watching. He’d hardly consider his actions fully willing when he hates what he’s doing but can’t stop himself because of the bond, but he’s sure it looks like he’s eager to be doing this.  
  
He takes Joe into his mouth again and pulls off slowly, circling his tongue around Joe’s tip and tasting more of his precum. He’s starting to feel nauseous as he works to please his alpha, but he tries not to think too hard about what he’s doing. He’s afraid he’s going to truly tear himself apart with these conflicting feelings, and he doesn’t know where that level of madness leads.  
  
He dips his head lower again, reaches out his tongue to lick at the base of Joe’s cock, then sucks gently as he pulls off. He wraps a hand around Joe’s cock and runs his tongue down his shaft, moving toward his balls. Joe spreads his legs a little wider as Max stimulates his balls, opening his mouth wide to take them in as much as he can, and licking at the sensitive flesh.  
  
When he moves back to his cock and takes him in again, he only spends a minute bobbing his head slowly on the alpha’s shaft before he feels Joe’s hand come to rest on the back of his head once more, stroking him carefully before pressing downward lightly. Max pauses, a shiver running up his spine, then he takes a deep breath as he lowers his head gradually, and tries to open up his throat as Joe’s cockhead nears the back of his mouth. He gags as soon as it reaches too far back, and he pulls back to take a couple breaths before he moves to try again. Joe leans back a little more, his hand still on the back of Max’s head, guiding him downward as he chokes and pulls off again.  
  
Max worries that Joe is going to force him if he can’t succeed at deepthroating him, and while he hates that he’s doing this himself, he knows being forced is difficult and painful, and he’d rather not experience that again.  
  
After a few more tries, Max manages to slide Joe into his throat, and he clenches his eyes shut as his nose bumps against Joe’s groin, the large cock pressed in deep. Joe moans again and pets Max appreciatively, but Max’s throat spasms as a gag overtakes him, and he quickly pulls off again.  
  
After a few breaths, he tries again, gets Joe deep into his throat a second time, but has to pull off just as quickly. The third time that he swallows Joe down and tries to pull off as his gag reflex takes over, Joe’s hand tightens down on the back of Max’s head, and he holds him in place. Max chokes around him and tries to whimper, pushing weakly against his hold, until Joe lets up and Max pulls off and coughs.   
  
They repeat this a few more times, Max being the one to take Joe into his throat, and Joe forcing Max to stay on him longer than he’s comfortable with, but none of it lessens Max’s desire to continue to please his alpha.  
  
Joe’s moans grow a little breathier, and finally, with his hand holding Max’s head down against his groin, his knot starts to inflate. Max has a deep breath of air in his lungs and is getting better about repressing his gag reflex, but he gags immediately as it grows, and he tries weakly to pull off. He knows he was able to pull off of the full knot last time, but he’s still afraid of it getting lodged in his mouth until it deflates on its own.  
  
Joe holds him down for a little while longer, then lets him up to breathe, and Max opens his eyes again and watches the knot slowly grow in front of him. Hesitantly, he stimulates the tip of Joe’s cock, licking and bobbing his head, but not taking him into his throat again. He doesn’t want that knot in his mouth.  
  
Joe’s hand strokes the back of his head again, and then his voice rumbles quietly and lustfully above Max. “Suckle my knot. Take my cum.”  
  
Max holds back a whimper and obediently slides his head slowly downward, taking a breath and opening his throat as Joe fills his mouth. Reluctantly, he presses down farther, opening his mouth wide and trying to get Joe’s knot back into his mouth. Joe presses down on his head again and thrusts his hips upward at the same time, and the knot slides past Max’s teeth. Max immediately chokes around Joe in reaction to the sudden thrust, and Joe grunts and moans and Max feels his cock twitch as he starts cumming. His hips continue moving in short, hard thrusts into Max’s face as he spills down his throat, both hands pressing hard on the back of Max’s head, holding him solidly in place.  
  
Max manages to relax his throat enough to stop himself from choking on Joe’s cock, and he stimulates his knot with his lips and tongue, just hoping it’ll be over soon. Joe lets out one last grunt and thrusts hard into Max’s mouth before his body relaxes and he lets up his hold on Max’s head.   
  
As he’s freed, Max quickly opens his mouth wide and carefully tries to pull off of Joe’s knot. Joe leans back and watches Max try to free himself, and when he finally does, Joe’s eyes curve with a pleased smile behind his mask.   
  
“My good omega,” Joe says as Max wipes away the saliva that had gathered on his lips. “Nobody pleases me like you do.”  
  
Max has nothing to say as he settles on the ground beside Joe, and Joe reaches out to stroke the side of his head again. Max’s eyes drift down to Joe’s cock. It’s still standing hard and erect, and Max shivers as he feels himself grow hard as well. He wants it buried deep in his cunt, needs the feeling of being filled and fucked. His hormones are raging with the beginning of his pregnancy, and he just wants the contact of his alpha.  
  
He hates himself more than he could ever say, but it’s pointless to fight, and he doesn’t stop himself as he slowly stands up and moves to untie his trousers. Joe watches silently, and Max can see his eyes crinkle with another smile as Max drops his trousers and slowly steps out of them.  
  
He steps toward Joe and swings a leg over his lap, settling down with his legs spread wide. He reaches down and takes Joe’s cock in hand, strokes up and down its length a couple times, then moves himself closer. Joe rumbles a quiet, pleased laugh, and leans back against his arms, just watching Max as he lifts himself up, puts Joe against him, then slowly skewers himself on Joe’s cock.  
  
Max moans quietly as he settles down and takes Joe in to the root. His body thrills at being filled, and he puts his hands on Joe’s shoulders and rolls his hips.  
  
“That’s right,” Joe says, closing his eyes and giving his hips a little thrust. “Just like that.”   
  
Max moans, pulls back, and lowers himself onto Joe again. He picks up a rhythm, moving his hips, taking Joe into him again and again, his cunt stretching wide around Joe’s knot every time it enters him. This won’t last long, he knows; with Joe’s knot already inflated, it’s only a matter of time before he gets himself worked up enough to clamp down on it and orgasm. Part of him is relieved, the same part that is sickened by his own actions. At least it’ll be over soon.  
  
He’s right, it’s only a minute or so of rocking his hips on Joe’s lap before the pleasure builds enough for him to feel his orgasm coming. He lowers himself onto Joe as far as he can, taking him all the way in again, and he moans loudly as his muscles clamp down around Joe’s knot and the walls of his cunt squeeze him in pulses as the pleasure washes over him. Joe picks up where Max left off, thrusting his hips up hard into Max, and the alpha too grunts as he spills more seed into Max. Max shoots his load up the front of Joe’s armor.  
  
Max leans against Joe and pants tiredly as the pleasure fades from his body. His position over Joe is uncomfortable, with his legs splayed wide to straddle the other man’s hips, but he has no choice but to stay where he is until Joe’s knot goes down and he can get up. Joe, too, is panting lightly, and stroking Max’s arm with one hand.  
  
Max inhales his scent deeply and lets himself take comfort in it. He tries again to not let himself think about what he’s just done. It’s the bond, not him. He buries his face against Joe’s neck and forces back a shudder. His life is a lost cause anyway. What does it matter?  
  
Joe looks down at himself as he starts to grow soft inside of Max, and he grunts disapprovingly at the mess on his stomach. “Clean me up,” he orders.  
  
Max feels his knot deflate enough to slip out of him, and he moves off of Joe’s lap. He looks around for something to clean Joe’s armor with, but Joe reaches up and pulls him down to his knees in front of him, then hooks his hand around the back of Max’s head and pulls him closer. Max rolls his eyes up to look at Joe. Joe’s eyes are still dark with lust, and he tugs at Max again, putting his face right in front of the splatter of cum across his armor.  
  
Max takes a quiet breath and leans forward the rest of the way, reaching out his tongue to lick the hard plastic armor. The taste of himself isn’t like Joe’s taste, and his stomach twists at the flavor, but he takes another lick, slowly, with his eyes upturned toward Joe.   
  
Joe watches with amusement as Max cleans up his armor, and caresses the side of his face when he’s done. “Good boy,” he says.   
  
He stands up and tucks himself back into his trousers, leaving Max kneeling on the floor, feeling like garbage for everything he’s done. Max doesn’t turn to look at the other wives as Joe walks away, just watches his alpha leave, then crawls slowly into his nest and curls up, disgusted with himself and the feeling of satisfaction seeping through his body. He is now complicit in his own slavery and rape, but at this point he feels like he has no other way to be.


	9. Chapter 9

Days turn to weeks. Weeks begin to turn to months. Or so Max thinks. He doesn’t really bother to keep track of them anymore, but gradually his stomach swells and his pregnancy starts to show.  
  
It makes him feel weak.   
  
He had been tied down and raped, and there was nothing he could do to stop it. He knows it wasn’t any weakness of his own that led to his impregnation, but it still feels that way. The small bulge of his stomach serves as clear proof that Joe was the stronger man, and Joe got what he wanted.  
  
He shakes those thoughts away. They’re no good for him. He can’t hate and love his alpha at the same time, not without going mad. He has to try to pick one, and lately it has been easier to push down the voice in the back of his mind that snarls and curses at Joe. Much easier than pushing down his gut reactions, his entire body’s instincts.  
  
The voice never goes away, though. Deep within himself, he still hates everything about what his life has become.  
  
Max isn’t sure if it’s the bond or his pregnancy, but he has started wanting Joe even when Joe isn’t around. He has new, unfamiliar hormones flowing through his body, and sometimes they leave him frustrated and needing, and contact with his alpha is the only thing that satisfies it.  
  
He hates himself when he initiates sex with Joe, when he drops to the level of crawling to the man and asking for it, but can’t stop himself anymore. He loves getting what he needs from his alpha. It makes him feel complete, in a twisted sort of way.  
  
He’s started feeling jealous, too. Joe is _his_ alpha. Max is the one Joe decided to form a bond with. So why does he still go to those women? Is Max not good enough for him? As his omega, Max should have his devotion.  
  
He holds himself back from saying anything or interrupting when Joe wants to have sex with one of his other wives. Max knows better than to anger Joe, or get in the way. But he seethes with jealousy and frustration. He ought to have Joe to himself.  
  
He tries not to let himself think too hard about these new feelings. He doesn’t like them, but he lets himself feel them without letting the other side of his mind pick them apart too much. He’s still afraid he’s going to tear himself apart if he lets himself dwell too much on the full hatred he feels for the man he wants so badly to be near.  
  
But always the reason in the back of his mind breaks through, quiet though it may be these days. It won’t give up, and despite his fear of what is going on in his own mind, he doesn’t want to give it up either. It’s the last part of who he was that he still has left.  
  
He’s never more pleased, or more torn, than when he does have Joe to himself. Max basks in his attention, all while fighting back the nausea that creeps up his stomach at Joe’s touch. His skin tingles with pleasure everywhere Joe’s fingers trail, but at the same time, part of him wants to cut that hand off and never let it touch him again.  
  
Now that his pregnancy is showing, Joe comes to him more often. The alpha loves seeing the small swell of his belly, loves caressing it. He coos over Max and tells him he looks forward to feeling his pups kick and move inside him. He looks forward to seeing them born.  
  
Max is gradually coming to look forward to having his pups too. The more pregnant he gets, the more devoted Max feels toward his growing children. And the more devoted he feels toward them, the closer he feels to Joe, to that shared connection. Joe is their father. He can’t deny that. Not when he’s bonded, not when Joe owns him, practically in every sense of the word. Max lives for Joe now.  
  
He hates it.  
  
He stands up and trudges to the standing mirror at the edge of the room after Joe has left the vault. He can still feel Joe’s touch on his skin, and is already starting to miss his hands caressing over his stomach. He looks at his reflection, puts his hands on his belly. There’s no movement inside yet, but there will be.  
  
He’s so weak.  
  
He lost a life of complete freedom for this. All because he couldn’t get away from the cars chasing him down. He should have been able to drive faster. He couldn’t fight them off as they captured him. He should have tried harder, shouldn’t have worried about the gun they had aimed at him. He couldn’t stop Joe from raping him. He should have kicked and struggled more, made it impossible for the alpha to get his cock inside.   
  
But now this is his life. Just because he can bear children, his whole life got torn apart and reduced to this. A broodmare without a choice.  
  
His hands tighten into fists as he looks at his reflection in the mirror.  
  
The worst part is that he’s starting to want this life. But he doesn’t want it because he chose it, he wants it because Joe forced a bond. He’s not really himself anymore. He never would have chosen this, never would have decided to drop everything and give birth to children for a cruel warlord. He was never given a choice, and now Joe controls him, and he never will have a real choice again.  
  
Before he knows it his fist swings forward and smashes into the mirror. He doesn’t want to see himself anymore. Doesn’t want to see the bulge of his belly and the proof that he is too weak to take hold of his own life anymore.  
  
He steps back, surprised at himself as pieces of the mirror crash to the floor at his feet. His knuckles sting. They’re probably bleeding, but he doesn’t bother looking.  
  
“Max! What-“ Toast is suddenly trotting up behind him, looking at the shattered remains of the mirror on the floor.  
  
“I’m sorry,” Max mutters, covering his face with his hands. “I just- I’m sorry.”  
  
The rest of the group hurries over to see.  
  
“Joe’s going to be mad…” Cheedo mutters fearfully.  
  
Max shudders at the thought.  
  
“We’ll hide the pieces,” Angharad decides. “It’s okay, Max. We won’t tell him.” Anghard splits off, telling the others to find something to gather the pieces in, and the rest follow her.  
  
Max crouches down and starts cleaning up the pieces. He picks up one of the larger shards, about the width of his hand and a little longer, tapering to a fine point, and he looks at his reflection in it.   
  
The edges are sharp. A quick cut in the right place, and it could all be over for him.  
  
He shakes his head.  
  
He doesn’t have the guts to do it. Not anymore. But this way would be so easy. He could do it quietly, in the night, without any of the others noticing. They couldn’t stop him.  
  
He doesn’t want to give up his chance. Maybe some day, he’ll have the strength again, and he can end this. Maybe some day he can make a choice again.  
  
He glances around quickly, sees the others are distracted trying to find something to hide the shards in, and he quickly tucks the one in his hand under a pillow at the edge of his nest.  
  
*****  
  
It’s a few days later when Max is woken in the middle of the night. He sits up quickly, scanning the room for Joe, but all he sees is Angharad and Capable. They’ve gotten their hands on white paint somehow, and are painting words across the wall and floor of the vault.   
  
_Who killed the world?_  
  
 _Our babies will not be warlords._  
  
Max stares. “What…?” he finally ventures.  
  
Capable looks up at him. There’s a bit of guilt in her eye. “We’re getting out of here,” she says.  
  
Max pushes himself up from his mattress. “How?” She has his full attention, though his chest aches at the idea of leaving.  
  
Capable looks at Angharad, who looks back. “Tell him,” Angharad says.  
  
“We’ve got someone on the outside willing to help us. She’s going to take us away from here.”  
  
“Nobody told me…” Max responds.  
  
The guilt is back in Capable’s eyes. “We… didn’t know if we could trust you not to tell Joe.”  
  
Max puts a hand to one of the fresh scars on his neck. He expected as much. “I wouldn’t,” he murmurs, though he doubts the truth of that statement. He wouldn’t want to, but he might have, if it would have gotten him favor in Joe’s eyes.  
  
“I’m sorry,” Capable says, stepping toward him and touching his arm gently. “We just couldn’t risk it…”  
  
“I want to come,” he says, surprising himself with the resoluteness of his voice. “Don’t leave me here…” He’s been so tired lately of trying to fight back that part of himself that hates everything his life has become, that it’s starting to show itself more and more again.  
  
Capable looks to Angharad again.  
  
“We won’t leave you,” Angharad says.  
  
They go back to painting, and it’s not long after they’ve finished that Max hears the door to the vault open, and he jumps. He watches the opening of the passageway warily. An Imperator walks in, but not like one he’s seen before. She’s a woman, half of her left arm replaced with a metal one. She’s got a shotgun in her other hand.  
  
Her eyes scan the room, and she stops at him. She looks distrustful. “That’s the omega?” She addresses Angharad.  
  
“Yes,” Angharad responds. “His name is Max. He’s coming with us.”  
  
Max watches the Imperator’s eyes drift down to his neck. She studies him for a moment, then shakes her head. “It’s too much of a risk.”  
  
A glare lowers over Angharad’s face. “He may be different from us, but Joe still raped him and impregnated him. We’re not leaving him behind.”  
  
“He has bonding scars,” the Imperator snaps back. “You can’t trust him.”  
  
“I do trust him,” Angharad responds.   
  
Max holds his arms across his stomach uncomfortably. The fate of his future is being decided right now, and he doesn’t even know what to say in his own defense. The more he lets himself think about this whole thing, the more unsure he gets. The other women have entered the main room by now, and are watching with apprehension.  
  
The Imperator approaches him, circles around him, looking at him hard. “If he gives us away, I’m dead, and I don’t even know what Joe will do to the rest of you.”  
  
Max wants to say that he wouldn’t give them away, but he doesn’t know if that would be true. He doesn’t even know if he really wants to convince the Imperator to take him with them. Part of him jumps at the chance to get away from here, but another part feels like it may break at the very thought.  
  
What’s a pregnant omega to do out there without his alpha? He growls in the back of his mind and reminds himself that he’s always been able to take care of himself before, and he sure as hell doesn’t need an alpha to do it for him now. And yet, the idea of leaving Joe, of taking Joe’s babies away from him feels like something Max just can’t do.  
  
“Furiosa,” Angharad says pleadingly. “He’s pregnant with Joe’s child. Nobody wants to be left to that life.”  
  
“A bonded omega would,” Furiosa mutters.  
  
“Then tell me why he tried to kill himself,” Angharad answers challengingly, and Max’s eyes snap uncomfortably down to the floor. Furiosa continues to study him, and Max feels exposed and fragile under her scrutiny.  
  
Angharad looks frustrated when Furiosa doesn’t answer. “If you leave him here, Joe wins,” she tries next.  
  
Furiosa looks at Angharad sharply.  
  
“You know he’ll probably birth more than one. Joe will get a boy from him before long.”  
  
Max shudders at the thought.  
  
“Beating Joe isn’t the plan,” Furiosa growls. “Getting away from him is.”  
  
“So let Max get away as well,” Angharad argues.  
  
Furiosa fixes him with a hard look. “Be honest, Omega. Do you _want_ to leave?”  
  
Max hesitates just a moment too long, and Furiosa’s expression hardens as she shakes her head. “He’ll give us away.”  
  
Angharad starts to argue again, but Furiosa simply turns away, making it clear that she’s not going to give the matter any more consideration.  
  
“Just go,” Max says quietly to Angharad, hating himself even as he says it. He doesn’t think he’d ever be free of Joe anyway, even with a million miles between them. “This is all I have anymore.”   
  
“You can have more,” Angharad hisses.  
  
He shakes his head. “Not when I’m bonded…” He knows from experience that separation from the one he’s bonded to is possibly the worst pain he could feel. It would only be a matter of time before it would send him crawling back here. At least the others can be free.  
  
“We can break the bond,” Angharad tries.  
  
Max shakes his head again. “A bond is for life.” It’s not like an old world marriage, where he could just decide he didn’t want it anymore and get a divorce. The only way to biologically break a bond between an alpha and an omega is for one of them to die.  
  
Angharad almost looks defeated. Almost. Behind her, the others are collecting a few last things as Furiosa hands the shotgun off to Miss Giddy. It’s as the others gather near the tunnel to the vault door, ready to leave, that Angharad turns toward them suddenly with fire in her eyes.  
  
“If you won’t take him, then I’m not coming either.”  
  
The other wives stare in apprehensive silence, and Furiosa glares, but Max can tell she’s not going to be so easily defeated.  
  
“Suit yourself,” the Imperator says after a moment. Max waits to see Angharad’s bluff fall, but she stands her ground and it’s quickly clear that she wasn’t bluffing.  
  
“Go,” Max growls again to Angharad. The more he thinks about it, the more he likes their plan not involving him. Or at least the bonded part of him does. He goes back to stuffing the other part down. If being so at odds with himself is ever going to drive him mad, now is the time he can see himself finally snapping.   
  
But if they go and he stays, he can finally have Joe to himself. No more jealousy, no more pain when he sees Joe go to one of the others instead of him. He may always hate his life, but if the throws himself into it, maybe he can survive it.  
  
Angharad turns back to him. “You said you wanted to come. You can’t give up so easily!”  
  
“I’m not giving up. I changed my mind. I want to stay.” That voice in the back of his mind screams at him to stop, screams that he could have been free. But he shakes it off. He knows he can’t ever be free. “And I’ll be glad to be rid of you,” he hisses at Angharad. “With you out of the way I can finally have him to myself.”  
  
Angharad stares in shock, then staggers back away from him. Capable reaches out and catches Angharad as she stumbles into the group. They all stare.  
  
They used to look at him with kindness and sympathy and understanding. Even though each had heard him cry out in pleasure as Joe fucked him, they all understood that really, deep within himself, he didn’t want that. He sensed that they had a harder time being understanding of him when he started initiating sex with Joe, but they still tried. They could tell he was a broken man. They knew that Joe had forced him into this situation.  
  
But now their looks have completely changed, and he turns his back to them, feeling himself start to tear apart. He does want to get out of here, but his bond with Joe is too strong. He can’t even convince himself that what he just said was a lie. He covers his mouth to hold back a sob. Whether it was a lie or not, he needs her to believe it, or she’ll ruin her own chances at freedom.  
  
He doesn’t turn around as he hears the group’s footsteps slowly retreat and the vault door close behind them.  
  
Miss Giddy tries to come to him after they’ve left, to talk to him, to comfort him, but he just snarls at her.  
  
“I don’t need your help. I’m fine.” He goes to his nest and curls up with his back to the room.


	10. Chapter 10

Max doesn’t get out of his nest the next morning when he hears Joe’s voice boom through the loudspeakers outside. Every trading run, he does this, makes a big show of it, of his power over the people. Except this time Max knows it’s different. This time it must be how the others are getting away.  
  
It’s about an hour later that he hears the vault door open, and he pushes himself up slowly in his nest. Joe will find out soon enough that the others are gone. Will he be happy to see that Max is still there? Or will he be mad at Max for letting them go?  
  
“Splendid?” Joe calls out as soon as he steps into the room, and Max’s heart twinges in pain that she would be the first one he thinks of. Max stands up slowly from his nest and Joe’s eyes snap over to him.  
  
“Max.” He moves over to Max and caresses the side of his face. “Where are the others?”  
  
Max shakes his head. “They left,” he says in a low whisper. He just wants Joe to himself now, but he realizes that Joe’s not going to let this go so easily. Joe’s going to go after them.  
  
“They are not your property,” Miss Giddy declares from the wives’ bedroom, and Max’s heart aches again as Joe abandons him and strides toward Miss Giddy’s voice. He wants to warn Joe that she has a shotgun, but his voice won’t leave his throat.  
  
“Miss Giddy?!”  
  
“You cannot own a human being. Sooner or later, someone pushes back!”  
  
“Where is she taking them?!”  
  
“She didn’t take them, they _begged_ her to go!”  
  
The sudden gunshot makes Max jerk backward in surprise, and his chest nearly tears itself open at the thought that she’s shot his alpha. His ears ring, his body feeling numb as he slowly steps toward the doorway, dreading what he’s going to see. But before he even gets there, Joe emerges again, dragging Miss Giddy along with him. He pauses, looks at Max with something in his eyes that Max can’t quite identify, then he continues, hauling Miss Giddy out of the room, locking the vault door behind him, and leaving Max alone. Max goes back to his nest and curls up, trying to hold back tears.

  
*****

  
The sun is setting and Max has barely moved from his nest all day when he hears the vault door open and he perks up. Did Joe lose them? Did he come back for Max? He sits up and watches the tunnel hopefully.  
  
Cheedo is the first to walk in, followed by the others, with Angharad coming in last, pushed along by Joe and a couple Imperators, and Max’s heart sinks. All the women have their hands tied, and a couple glance toward him, but none seem able to meet his eyes.  
  
Max stays in his nest, at a loss for what he should do, as Joe fits Cheedo, Toast, and Capable with new chastity belts, then unties their hands. Most of them won’t look up from the floor. Even Angharad seems almost broken.  
  
Joe unties the last one and shoves her toward the wives’ bedroom, and Max’s heart beats a little faster as Joe then comes toward him and crouches down by his mattress, reaching out toward Max gently. Max leans into Joe’s touch.  
  
“You stayed loyal to me, didn’t you, sweet omega?”  
  
Max nods against his hand, and Joe reaches up with his other hand and removes his breathing mask. He leans forward and kisses Max softly before he moves back and replaces his mask. Max nearly tears himself apart over that one simple gesture, his heart soaring while he simultaneously forces himself not to retch in disgust.  
  
“You’ll be rewarded for your loyalty, Max.”  
  
With that, Joe stands up and leaves him, and Max watches him go before he scans the room for the others, but they must all be in their beds, and Max curls back up in his own.  
  
After that, Max can confidently say that he has become Joe’s new favorite. Over the next several days, Joe brings him out of the vault on occasion, shows him around the Citadel, and shows him off to his followers. When he returns him to the vault, he locks the shackle back around his wrist, but Max tries not to mind.  
  
Joe also indulges Max much more readily now when Max needs to feel Joe inside him. He’s learned the flushed look Max gets on his face, too, and it’s a little easier on Max’s mind when he doesn’t have to directly ask for it, when Joe just comes to him when he needs him.   
  
Joe even takes Max back to his rooms one night, lets him share a meal with him and be completely surrounded by his scent as Joe fucks him again and again, until they’re both exhausted, then lets him sleep on his bed with him. The bonded part of Max couldn’t be happier. The voice in the back of his head that keeps hanging on is getting exhausted, and for once, is shamed into silence. Max thinks it may finally be losing the battle. Maybe he can learn to actually enjoy his new life.  
  
It takes a while for any of the wives to start talking to him again. He can tell they’ve been broken down, that their hope has been pulled out from under them. And he does feel bad for them. He can relate far more than he’d like to. For them it was getting dragged back here after they thought they would be free. For him it was the moment he realized the bond was complete. The night he tried to kill himself.  
  
He tries to shake the memories away. He’s happy with this now, he tries to tell himself. But really, he’s not. He never will be, unless he manages to squash that little voice of reason out of his head, that voice that reminds him just how wrong this is, reminds him of Joe’s cruelty, of the fact that Max never chose this.  
  
He rarely sleeps well, unless Joe has just fucked him to complete exhaustion, and tonight is no exception. Max lies awake, trying to silence the hatred in his mind, trying for once to just be at peace with the life he now has no power to change. He sits up as Angharad walks slowly out of the bedroom, her arms wrapped around herself and her eyes downcast. His movement must catch her eye, though, because she looks quickly up at him. She changes her course and moves toward him, then sits down next to his mattress. Max watches her warily, unsure of what she wants. He’d rather be left alone, but at the same time, he can’t help but feel for her.  
  
“Can’t sleep?” He keeps his voice quiet.  
  
Angharad shakes her head. She puts her hands on her belly and looks down at it for a moment. “Won’t be long now.”  
  
Max grunts quietly. “If it’s a boy…” But he stops, not sure how to finish that. He was going to say that maybe if it’s a boy, Joe will be happy with her again, but he knows that’s not at all what she wants.  
  
“It doesn’t matter,” she says sharply, interrupting him anyway. “I’ve never seen a healthy boy born here… But all the sick ones… He takes. All the girls… He takes. He takes them away from us and we never see them again.”  
  
Max stares in shock. He shouldn’t be shocked, he knows he shouldn’t, but he had somehow managed to trick himself into thinking that Joe would at least let his wives keep the healthy ones.  
  
He tries to recover himself, tries to assure himself that it’s not all that bad. If it were a boy, Joe would want it, would want to raise it. Surely the wife who birthed the child would be allowed to have a part in that, if she wanted.  
  
Angharad watches his face as he processes what she said. “We’re not mothers, Max. We’re just… baby carriers. Just here to birth them, and then Joe takes them and does whatever he wants with them.”  
  
Max’s arms cross over his own stomach protectively. He never wanted these children, but they’re growing inside of him now, and he can’t deny how protective he feels of them. But he’s Joe’s favorite now. They’re bonded, and he’s sure the bond has had at least some effect on Joe. If Max asked…  
  
He stops himself. He shouldn’t have to _ask_ to keep his own baby.  
  
He must look visibly shaken because Angharad puts her hand on his arm. “I’m sorry, Max. I thought you knew.”  
  
Max shakes his head and pulls away from her, toward the back of his nest.   
  
“It’s better that you know, anyway,” she says in a low voice. “You’ll need the time to prepare yourself.”  
  
Max doesn’t say anything back to her, and after a while, she gets up and leaves him with another quiet apology.  
  
Max lies down in his nest again, but he knows he’s not getting back to sleep now. Even if at least one of his children turns out to be a healthy boy, and even if he does convince Joe to let him help raise the baby… What if he births a girl too? What if none are boys? What if they’re not born healthy? Max doesn’t care what kind of problems they might be born with, they’re his babies, and he’d die before he’d let anything happen to them.  
  
He manages to finally quiet his mind enough to snatch a few hours of sleep in the early morning hours, and then the day begins as always. He tries to take comfort in the soft caress he gets from Joe when Joe brings them their morning meal, but his stomach churns with discomfort.  
  
He spends most of the day trying to occupy himself with a book he’s honestly not that interested in. None of the other wives are talking much yet, and he doesn’t want to talk to them anyway. He tries to put Angharad’s words out of his mind.  
  
He’s finally managed it, though it’s a delicate hold, by the time Joe comes in that evening, drops off their meal and moves over toward Max. It’s been a couple days since Joe last fucked him, and Max must have that look on his face, because he sees Joe’s eyes curve into a smile above his mask.  
  
“Come here,” Joe says, and takes Max’s hand and leads him over to his nest. He urges Max down on the edge of the mattress beside his nest and starts caressing his stomach, feeling its round shape and filling Max with the simultaneous comfort and disgust of his touch. Max leans back a bit to give him better access.  
  
Gradually pieces of Joe’s armor and clothing come off, between teasing touches that just make Max’s body want Joe all the more. Max is practically panting with need as Joe starts working off his belt, and Max twitches suddenly, feeling movement in his womb.  
  
“Joe,” he says quickly, staring down at himself in amazement. “Joe.”  
  
Joe stops, looks at him, and Max grabs his hand and puts it to his stomach.   
  
“Here.”  
  
Joe sits still, not sure what Max wants until the baby kicks again, and Max sees a smile spread across Joe’s face. He puts his other hand on Max’s stomach as well, and his smile grows as he feels another kick.  
  
“Ah, healthy and strong,” Joe says.  
  
The warm comfort Max is feeling creeping through his body is interrupted as he suddenly remembers Angharad’s words. _He takes them away._  
  
Max shakes his head faintly, but can’t chase the thought away. Joe slides one hand lower on Max’s stomach, still feeling for more movement from the baby.  
  
Even if Max can talk his way into keeping the children he births… If this is the life he’s living now, what kind of life would those children grow up with? Would they be forced into anything against their will? Would they be taught that treating people the way Joe does is okay?  
  
He tries again to shake the thoughts away as Joe’s hands slide across his stomach. He tries to take comfort in the love he can feel through that touch.  
  
Joe leans forward and kisses his belly. “They’ll be born strong like their father, and grow up healthy like you,” he says.  
  
Max leans back against his arms as Joe caresses his stomach, just trying to lose himself in the feeling again. Max’s fingertips hit something cold, and he instinctively stretches his fingers out to feel it. The mirror shard. He slides his hand backward under the pillow and feels the coolness of the glass on his palm.  
  
It is then that something in his head snaps. He won’t give up his babies, and he won’t let them live like he is.   
  
He moves suddenly, without thought or plan. He pushes himself up and forward with one hand, while the other grasps the shard of mirror and pulls it out from where he had hidden it. He swings his arm forcefully toward Joe and drives the tip of the glass into the side of his large belly. There’s a brief resistance but it quickly slides in up to Max’s hand. Joe lets out a grunt, surprise more than pain, and his eyes widen as he looks down at where Max has stabbed him.  
  
Joe finally lets out a cry of pain as Max pulls the makeshift blade out and watches the blood run down Joe’s skin.  
  
“What-“ Joe starts to demand, shocked and enraged, but Max quickly slashes the shard at Joe’s throat.  
  
Any scream Joe might have made is cut off by a wet gurgle as blood wells up and out of the fresh slice in his neck. Both of his hands go up to grasp at his throat as he gasps for air and starts to choke on his own blood. His heavy body falls backward across Max’s nest, and Max leaps forward and straddles Joe’s legs. He changes his grip on the glass, not even aware that it has cut into his own hand, his blood swirling together with Joe’s on the reflective surface, and he stabs downward, tearing into Joe’s gut.  
  
Images fly through his mind as he attacks, that voice in the back of his head gaining strength, screaming at Joe for everything he’s done to Max. He remembers it all, in perfect clarity and without the fog the bond has pulled across his eyes. Those first nights, chained to Joe’s bed and forced to breathe his scent to induce a heat. Handcuffed to another bed as Joe forced himself on Max. That cock driving into him again and again, despite his clear unwillingness. The bites to his bonding nerves, drawing blood, making bruises, tricking Max’s mind into believing that he belonged to this man. He lets his full hatred show, mad rage on his face as he pulls the mirror shard out and stabs downward again.  
  
He stabs again, and again, and again, not stopping until the shard breaks off in Joe’s body and Max has little left to attack with. He stumbles up and backward, dropping what’s left of the piece of mirror, and watches as Joe’s writhing weakens, then stops altogether.   
  
There are footsteps running toward him, and Max turns suddenly to see two Warboys rushing in. Joe’s cry must have alerted them. One stops, staring in shock at Joe’s body, but the other gives it only a glance before he’s attacking Max with a roar of rage.  
  
Max dodges deftly out of the way of his punch and brings his own fist up into the Warboy’s gut. A rush of air is forced from the Waroby’s lungs and he stumbles back, his arms over his stomach as he tries to recover. Max launches himself at him again, and they both go down to the ground. Max straddles his chest and with a roar of his own, brings his fists down on the Warboy’s head again and again until his face crushes beneath them.  
  
The other snaps out of his shock and rushes toward Max as his comrade falls still below him. Max pushes himself up quickly, grabbing the Warboy’s arm just as he unsheathes a knife from his belt. Max uses his momentum to send him toppling to the ground, then flings himself at his back. He lets out an inhuman growl as he grips the Warboy’s head and twists hard, feeling vertebrae crunch and dislocate under the force.  
  
Max stays on the dead man’s back for a moment, panting in exertion. It’s as his breathing starts to slow that his mind starts to calm from the pure rage that had been surging through it. He stands slowly up. There’s blood splattered on Max’s arms and torso and white trousers, and he looks down at his bloodied hands, then slowly up to see the five women huddled together in the middle of the room, staring with wide eyes.  
  
“Max…”  
  
He’s not sure which of them says it. He’s following their gazes behind him, back to the motionless body lying across his nest.  
  
There’s no movement. Joe is dead, his blood slowly seeping into the blankets he had given to Max.  
  
Max takes a numb step forward, then another one. A sudden scream fills the vault, and it takes Max a second to realize it’s his own. He crashes to his knees and can feel his heart pounding in his chest, harder and faster than it had been even a minute ago when adrenaline rushed through his veins.  
  
Joe is dead.  
  
He killed his own alpha.  
  
Max crumples to the ground.


	11. Chapter 11

“Max… Max… Come on, Max. Wake up.”  
  
Max comes to and blinks his eyes open to see the five faces of the other wives all hovering over and surrounding him. His head aches. He doesn’t know what’s going on. Why is he on the floor?  
  
“Hey,” Capable says gently, giving him a smile, though it seems a little forced and there’s something more behind it that he can’t quite read.  
  
“What…” Max tries to sit up, but Toast pushes him back down.  
  
“Take it easy, it’ll be okay.”  
  
He glances around him next, still disoriented. They seem to be intentionally blocking his vision of one side of the room, and it’s not until he lifts his hands and sees the blood on them that he remembers: he killed Joe.  
  
His heart starts racing again, his breath quickens. How did he even do that? It shouldn’t have been possible. _Why_ did he do that? They were bonded. Joe was his alpha, the father of his children. Panic starts to take hold of him, and all the women around him react immediately.  
  
“Hey, hey, no, it’s okay.”  
  
“Stay calm, Max.”  
  
“Deep breaths, you’re going to be okay.”  
  
Max is trying to get up, trying to see past them, trying to glimpse Joe’s body, but they won’t let him.  
  
“Max, we need you to stay calm.”  
  
“I… I killed him,” he rasps out, still hardly believing it. Panic is still churning through his chest.  
  
Angharad touches the side of his face gently, tries to direct his attention to her. “Yes, Max. You did. And you’re free now. We’re all free.”  
  
Max shakes his head violently. “I can’t- How did I- What-“ He can’t collect his thoughts well enough.  
  
“Shh, shh,” Angharad continues. “Max, this is very important. We have to move now. We need you now.”  
  
Max swallows a lump in his throat and tries to focus on her.  
  
“The vault door is open, but if we don’t go now, they’re just going to lock us in again, or do worse. We need your help.” She’s still stroking the side of his face gently, and somehow it grounds him, calms his mind just enough to think.  
  
She sees him settle a little, and gives him an encouraging smile. “Our only chance is to take control of this situation now. Joe is dead,” she says carefully, watching him for a reaction, prepared to calm him again, and panic spikes in his chest but he forces it back down. “If we can make our way to the skull mouth, we can announce it ourselves, and maybe have a chance to take over.”  
  
“Take… over?” Max’s head is still spinning.  
  
“I’m not sure if we can,” she admits. “But we have to show that we’re strong. We have to show power now, or we’ll just be thrown back in our place and nothing here will change. If we do this right, I think we can take control of the Citadel.”  
  
Max nods weakly, though this is all far beyond him right now. He tries again to look over toward his nest, but Cheedo quickly moves and blocks his line of sight again.  
  
“I’m… chained,” he points out once he’s gotten his mind to trudge through the first step of this plan. He might be able to get them through the Citadel, but not if he’s still got this shackle around his wrist.  
  
“Joe might have had the key on him,” Angharad says quietly to the others. Toast gets up and moves toward Max’s nest, and Max tries to look, but Angharad puts her hand to the side of his face and keeps him from turning his head. “Max. Don’t do that to yourself.”  
  
They help him sit up with his back to his nest, and it’s a minute later that Toast comes back and inserts a key into the shackle at his wrist, and frees him. Max rubs his wrist, shoves down the urge to look over his shoulder, and pushes himself shakily to his feet.  
  
Dag hands him the knife from the second Warboy he killed, and Max swallows, looking down at it, remembering the feeling of the mirror shard sinking into Joe’s body. He shudders, pushing down another wave of panic, and lurches forward, heading toward the vault door.  
  
The others follow him as he navigates by memory to the place where Joe would make his announcements. The place where Joe showed Max off to the people below, told them all about his loyal omega. He focuses on his task, just trying to hold himself together in the wake of what has happened. If he thinks about it too hard, he doesn’t doubt that he’ll break down again.  
  
It’s late in the evening and they don’t encounter many people on their way. Max is prepared to kill anybody he sees, anybody who tries to get in their way or even thinks of locking them up again, but for both Warboys they come across, Angharad speaks up behind him, trying to use words to talk them down before Max gets a chance to use the knife.  
  
He’s not surprised it doesn’t work. The Warboys must be on high alert, and seeing Joe’s prized breeders wandering around on their own only a week or two after they broke out and Joe brought his entire war party to chase after them probably raises nothing but suspicion. Max suspects the blood splattered all over him doesn’t help either.  
  
He dispatches each with only a little struggle: a fist to his cheek, a gunshot that misses. He claims the gun and they move on.  
  
When they make it to the room behind the skull, the women set to work trying to light it and figure out how the speaker system works. Max falls into a crouch and squeezes his eyes shut, still trying to push back the knowledge of what he has done, and what that means for him and his future. Dag stays by him.  
  
“Hey, hey. You can’t check out now. We still need you.”  
  
Max forces his eyes open and looks at her.  
  
“When they hear us doing this, they might try to stop us. We need you to guard the door.”  
  
Max tightens his grip on the gun and nods weakly. She helps him back to his feet and takes him over to the doorway, where he tries to focus his attention on keeping watch.  
  
It’s several minutes before the room is glowing brightly and they find the switches to turn on the microphone and speaker system. Angharad’s voice booms through the towers and to the people down below. Max can hardly even piece together her words as she speaks them. His head is spinning again, and he feels sick.  
  
Dag talks to him quietly, and he doesn’t know what she’s saying either, but her words are calming, and keep him conscious. As Angharad speaks, men do come for them, and Max doesn’t ask questions. He just shoots.  
  
It all starts to blur together, gunfire and yelling and Angharad’s voice sounding through the speakers. He doesn’t know when he ended up on the floor, but he wakes up in a panic to the sound of his name on repeat. He needs to protect them. He needs to stop the people coming for him. He can’t let them all get recaptured and locked up again.  
  
“Hey, it’s okay!” Capable puts her hands on his shoulders and pushes him back as he tries to shoot upright. “It’s okay now. You’re okay.”  
  
Where’s the gun? He had a gun in his hand just a second ago. Did he drop it? He feels around for it blindly.  
  
Max is sweating, breathing heavily, his head throbbing, his vision unclear. He doesn’t know where he is, doesn’t know what’s going on anymore. A hand comes to rest on his forehead and urges him back down.  
  
“You did well, Max. Just relax.”  
  
He lies back down, but he still feels unsettled. “Where…?”  
  
“We found some empty rooms we can use. We’re holed up here while Angharad finishes the negotiations.”  
  
Max blinks around him, but he can’t really make the room out. “Negotiations?”  
  
“The Wretched on the ground and on the treadmills rioted last night when Joe’s Imperators tried to fight back. Everybody’s on our side except Joe’s men, and even some of them aren’t so sure anymore.”  
  
Max squints at her. He’s really not sure what she’s talking about anymore.  
  
“You killed their god, Max.” She smiles at him. “It’s brought up a lot of questions for a lot of people.”  
  
Max’s stomach churns, and he thinks he may vomit, except that there’s nothing in his stomach. He groans and closes his eyes. Another hand comes to rest on his forehead.  
  
“He’s burning up. Give him some space, he needs to rest.”  
  
The next several days are a blur of fever and chills and nausea and headaches. One of the others is almost always by his side, taking care of him, feeding him, giving him water, cooling his forehead.  
  
It’s not until the sickness recedes that he’s able to think a little more clearly about the events of that night. It’s not until then that the grief sets in.  
  
He’s torn about this as much as he was about loving Joe, but as he sobs for the loss of his alpha, he can feel himself breaking apart. It’s like there’s a giant hole in his chest now, a piece of himself missing. And it’s only made worse by the fact that he did it himself.  
  
The others try to comfort him, try to remind him how cruel Joe was, how much good Max did by ending him and his reign, but they could never understand. Whether he liked Joe or not, they were bonded, and the loss of that bond is the most painful thing an omega will ever know.  
  
He retreats into himself, becomes mostly unresponsive for days. If this kills him, he thinks, he will have deserved it. He doesn’t know how to cope anymore, doesn’t know how to deal with the loss and the pain. He goes through the motions of staying alive, but that’s it.  
  
It’s like he doesn’t know how to exist anymore. Like Joe was part of him, and without that part, without the comfort of his scent, his touch, his voice, Max isn’t a whole person. He aches for that touch so much sometimes that it feels like a physical pain.  
  
It wasn’t even real. He never loved Joe, the only good thing he ever felt for the man was a lie forced on him by a biological bond. He feels like he should be able to let go of this, to move on with his life, but the pain is crippling, and the frustration at himself roils within him until he feels like he’s going to burst with it.  
  
The others stay by him, look after him, make sure he’s not letting himself waste away, but they don’t quite seem to know how to help him. After a while, after he stops responding, most of them stop trying to talk to him for the most part, but Dag never gives up. On quiet days, she’ll sit by him and hold entire one-sided conversations. Max can’t really bring himself out of his misery enough to respond, to do anything other than stare at her with an unfocused gaze as she talks, but he likes hearing her voice.  
  
For days he wishes he would just die. If this is his life now, it’s not one he wants to live. He hates feeling such pain over the loss of the man who raped him. He hates wishing that he had Joe back, when he knows that Joe did nothing other than force him into a life he never wanted. He violated his body, violated his mind, and thrust upon him a future he never asked for.  
  
But every once in a while, one of his children will kick inside of him, and that brings him back to reality more than anything else. He never wanted to be pregnant. But now that he is, he can’t place the blame on his children.   
  
He’s still more devoted to them than he ever would have expected. He knows that’s just biology too: the omegan drive to protect his children, a drive so strong it was the very thing that led him to murder his alpha. But it’s a side of his omegan biology he thinks he can actually live with.   
  
It, too, was forced upon him along with everything else, but now that he’s come this far, he couldn’t bring himself to kill the fetuses just for the sake of going back to the life he had. Even when he tries to look at the situation without he lens of his omegan biology, he comes to the same conclusion: they’re innocent of all this, and he wants them to live.  
  
He doesn’t want to live with this pain, but he does want to live for his children. They’re completely his now, and nobody’s going to take them away from him. He’ll get to be with them after they’re born, will get to hold them and raise them and love them.  
  
Max doesn’t know how well he’ll be able to handle being a parent again, but he does know he will be fiercely protective of his children. He’d do anything for them, give them anything, risk his life for them. And he’ll raise them right. They’ll never be taught that humans can be property, they’ll never be taught that cruelty is the only way to survive in this world. Max will be sure of that.  
  
He wraps his arms over his stomach and curls up protectively around himself. The pain of his severed bond is very real, but so is his drive to provide for his babies. Maybe he can pick himself up and move on, for them.  
  
It’s not as easy as all that. The pain is still like a deep gash in his chest, but gradually he starts to pull himself out of his shell. His limbs feel heavy, and they drag like his sorrow is a physical ailment, but he starts responding to Dag, and then to the others. He speaks again. He gets up and ventures out of the rooms they had claimed after the revolution. Bit by bit, he tries to start living again.  
  
There are nights where he’ll still cry himself to sleep, days where he’ll sniff his way through the tunnels, still picking up traces of Joe’s scent and reveling in it, trying to reconnect with what he once had, but each day he tries to just keep moving forward. The past is gone. Joe is gone. His bond is severed, and with time that wound will heal, even if it doesn’t feel like it now. He has a future to prepare for, and it’s not the future he had ever imagined for himself, but he thinks it’s one he can be happy with.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you, as always, for sticking with me through another one of my fucked up adventures. You guys are all amazing and I love you.


End file.
